Jack Ma recently stepped down as the President of the Hupan Innovation Center, an elite institute that he co-founded six years ago. Reports indicate that the move came as a result of political pressure from the Chinese government. This is not the only time when China has cracked down on the legendary entrepreneur and his companies recently.

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Ma’s fall from grace started soon after he gave a scathing speech criticising national financial regulators that was said to have infuriated Chinese President Xi Jinping. Soon after the speech, Ma’s Ant Group, which is China’s biggest payment provider with 730 million people using it monthly through Alipay, was called into a meeting with the People’s Bank of China, China Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange for ‘regulatory talks’.

In November last year the highly anticipated double-listing initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong for Ant Group was halted after the Shangai Stock Exchange suspended the listing citing “significant change” in the regulatory environment. The IPO was expected to be the world’s largest at over $35 billion. The IPO is expected to be delayed by 6 months.

Chinese regulators also started an antitrust probe against Ma’s Alibaba Group and its affiliate Ant Group. The probe followed the Chinese Communist Party’s drafting of regulations to prevent monopolistic behaviour by internet companies. The first on the chopping block just happened to be Ma’s companies.

Alibaba Group as a result of the probe was hit by a record $2.8 billion fine for abusing its dominant position. Regulators also told Alibaba Group to sell off its media assets, including the highly influential South China Morning Post, which is based out of Hong Kong. But that was not the end of the story. Ant Group was also told to restructure the company so that it functioned more like a bank rather than a fin-tech company.

Reuters also reported that Ant Group was exploring ways to divest Ma’s share in the company following pressure from the government and after talks with People's Bank of China (PBOC), and financial regulator China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).