An annual meeting of the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum was recently held in Heilongjiang Province. Phoenix reported that Ma Yun, the CEO of a listed company in China, spoke at the meeting. On the topic of haze in Beijing, he said:
“I am very pleased because although the privileged class has clean water, they can’t order clean air.”
Ma, who is Chairman of the Board of Directors for Alibaba (on-line commerce trading platform), has always been recognised for using sharp words.
Regarding environmental pollution, Ma said that after 10 years of pollution of the water, air and food, every family in Mainland China is probably haunted by liver cancer, lung cancer or gastric cancer. He said that 30 years ago, cancer was a rare term for Chinese people, but now it has become the common state of society.
“How can we sleep at night? We can’t safely drink the water or eat the food, and our children don’t have milk safe enough to drink. We work hard, but in the end, our money goes on medical expenses.”

Ma Yun (Jack Ma), Chairman of the Board of Directors, Alibaba. (Image: World Economic Forum via wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0)
Ma Yun indicated the cause of the problem is the immoral society-wide pursuit of rapid economic growth and the dereliction of duty of the government’s inspection department. He said the main reason for this is that Mainland Chinese commonly lack contentment and gratitude for what they have, and no longer have a natural sense of awe and faith in God.