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China Profiles: Jack Ma, Internet CEO

In China, people are taking their lives into their own hands, often for the very first time. The Communist Party has eased social restrictions and people have more freedom of choice. Sometimes their choices are of great consequence, but the choices that are really transforming China are mostly small ones, being made by people you've never heard of.

In the first of a five-part series, "A Nation of Individuals," Rob Gifford profiles Jack Ma, a forward-looking entrepreneur with the ambitious goal of changing China's corporate culture. He is the founder of Alibaba, a business-to-business online trading company that puts businesses directly in touch with suppliers, cutting out the middleman and the middle costs.

Employees are drilled in the company values of integrity, honesty, passion and teamwork. Alibaba also brings customers from all over China to its headquarters, to train them in online business, accounting transparency and efficiency.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rob Gifford
Rob Gifford is the NPR foreign correspondent based in Shanghai.