IFM Correspondent

January 12, 2017: During his electoral campaign, Donald Trump often targeted China, blaming the country for US job losses and vowing to impose 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports. He also promised to call China a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

But a meeting between Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma and Donald Trump could potentially improve ties between the two nations.

Jack Ma, the billionaire founder and executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, met US president-elect Donald Trump on January 9. According to an Alibaba spokesperson, he laid out the Chinese e-commerce giant’s plan to bring one million small US businesses onto its platform to sell to Chinese consumers over the next five years.

Trump praised Ma after the meeting as a ‘great, great entrepreneur and one of the best in the world’. “We had a great meeting,” Trump told the press pool at Trump Tower. “It’s jobs. You just saw what happened with Fiat where they’re going to build a massive plant … in Michigan. And we’re very happy. “Jack and I are going to do some great things,” he added.

Ma called it a ‘very productive meeting’. He said that the company would help small American businesses sell their products on Alibaba’s platform.

Alibaba’s spokespersons did not mention whether Trump and Ma spoke about an on-going US Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into Alibaba’s accounting practices.

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