Quite frankly, Ma and his companies somewhat got what they had coming. It's a shame that many jobs were probably destroyed and that this only strengthens the power of the much larger evil that is the CCP, but this particular billionaire had gotten into bed with that particular dragon with enough experience of their dealings to know what they could do on a whim. In many ways he actively aided the Chinese state surveillance monster in its efforts at social control. Now he's seeing that when it comes to state power, anyone who isn't top dog is always subject to arbitrary punishment if the right sort of megalomaniac feels threatened in some way. Apparently, this didn't bother him when those being targeted were millions of smaller people (targeted at times with help from the very technologies his corporate empire helped develop). This whole fiasco speaks poorly of China's respect for rule of law and even its intelligence in how it proceeded, but as for Jack Ma himself, I hardly see how he deserves much sympathy finally being a target of his ruthless and control-hungry former friends.