Jack Ma is a star who has suddenly disappeared from view.
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He was the brash face of capitalism in China.
He is a zillionaire, sometimes said to be the second richest person in the country. He may be the richest, depending on how you value it, but either way, Mr Ma is worth a bucket of money - round about $60 billion.
He made his name and his money in 1992 by founding Alibaba which is now the biggest e-commerce company in the world, bigger even than Amazon, eBay and the American supermarket giant Walmart put together.
He has a global outlook. In 2017, he donated $25 million to found a scholarship at the University of Newcastle. His first visit outside China was to Newcastle in 1985 when he was just out of his teens.
A rock star, really
Mr Ma wasn't just a star businessman. He was also flamboyant, appearing in black leathers with a guitar and dark glasses at company celebrations, stretching out his arms to (apparently) adoring employees like a rock star.
If anyone symbolised a new, modern China where making loads of money was acceptable in the ostensibly communist country, Mr Ma was the man.
Was?
He may come back - or he may not.
We don't know what his current situation is because he has vanished from public view.
From being the face of capitalist China everywhere from the big movers-and-shakers' meetings in Davos to a television screen near you, he has disappeared.
His last known public appearance was at the live-streaming of a big publicity event in China at the end of October.
But in November, the Financial Times noticed that he had "disappeared from his own talent show".
"Jack Ma has disappeared as the public face of an African talent show he created, in a hint of the difficulties he is facing after a fall from grace in China.
"Mr Ma was replaced as a judge in the final of Africa's Business Heroes, a television contest for budding entrepreneurs, his photograph was removed from the judging webpage, and he was conspicuously left out of a promotional video."
Fall from grace
We don't know what has happened to Mr Ma but he does seem to have displeased the Chinese authorities with a speech he gave shortly before he vanished. In it, he criticised business regulators and banks in China as too conservative, with a "pawn shop" mentality.
According to the reliable Reuters news agency, he said that China's "regulatory system was stifling innovation and must be reformed to fuel growth".
Apart from disappearing from his own show, the Chinese authorities also suspended a mega deal in which Mr Ma was involved.
He and Alibaba are part owner of a company called Ant Group which was due to sell shares worth more than $40 billion on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock-markets in November.
At the last moment, the Chinese authorities cited "major issues" for suspending the offering. The Shanghai Stock Exchange said that Mr Ma had been called in for "supervisory interviews".
What might be going on?
I am very thankful for Australia and the time I spent there in my youth.
- Jack Ma
It certainly looks like Mr Ma has been pulled into line because he seemed to get above himself. The message is that in China, the Communist Party rules and nobody should forget that, no matter how many billions they have in the bank.
As the Washington Post put it: "Some see Ma's travails as a warning from the ruling Communist Party that even a wildly successful entrepreneur can't publicly defy regulators. But finance experts said President Xi Jinping's government already was uneasy about Alibaba's dominance in retailing."
The American paper quoted Shaun Rein, a business consultant in Shanghai: "They spanked him. He's learned his lesson, and that's why he's been quiet."
It doesn't mean the end of Mr Ma - though it might. He may reappear, suitably chastened having learnt a lesson about where power lies.
Are there wider implications?
Firstly, Jack Ma was - and presumably is - a friend of Australia.
Ken Morley from Newcastle happened to meet the then unknown Mr Ma on a trip to China in 1980. They became long-lasting friends.
The young Chinese entrepreneur then spent a month in Newcastle, falling in love with the city and the country. He said the experience had "totally changed my future".
He was quoted as saying: "I am very thankful for Australia and the time I spent there in my youth".
The message
Mr Ma's fate underlines the cost of falling out with the leadership in Beijing. The authorities in China have arrested others without apparent good cause.
Two years ago, they held the Australian "democracy blogger" Yang Hengjun whose trial is yet to happen.
The Chinese authorities also arrested two Canadian citizens. Where Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are being held is unknown. They have been accused of spying but not tried.
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In 2016, China arrested Swedish national Peter Dahlin who was working for a group supporting activists promoting the rule of law.
Beijing may feel it needs the kind of capitalism epitomised by Jack Ma but it also needs people to know that the communist party is in control.
It's a hard balance.