Never, ever do business with government. Love them. Don t marry them. So, we never do projects for government.
— Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, on avoiding doing business with the Chinese government. But Ma said on 60 Minutes that Alibaba cooperates with the government when needed, especially when it s related to national security.
Alibaba, which recently had the world s biggest initial public offering, is an e-commerce giant that processes 80 percent of China s online purchases. Ma acknowledged that Alibaba collects information about its Chinese users, but did not say how that data is used.
The Mercury News noted in May that in Alibaba s IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Chinese company said that China s economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the extent of government involvement.
Photo of Jack Ma by Vincent Yu/Associated Press archives
