Charlie Munger: 'Communists Did The Right Thing' In Muzzling Jack Ma

One of the most prosperous capitalists in American business is singing the praises of the Chinese government for aggressively reining in Jack Ma.

Xi’s The Boss: In a CNBC interview, Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) Vice Chairman Charlie Munger praised the Communist Party-ruled government in shutting down the initial public offering planned by Ant, the affiliate of Ma's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA.

Ma has been conspicuously absent from public view since he gave a speech last October criticizing China’s regulators.

“Communists did the right thing,” said Munger. “They just called in Jack Ma and say, ‘You aren't gonna do it, sonny,’”

Munger added that Beijing regulators can teach their Washington counterparts a lesson on how to "step in preemptively to stop speculation".

"I don't want the, all of the Chinese system, but I certainly would like to have the financial part of it in my own country," said Munger, whose net worth is estimated at $2.2 billion.

See Also: Where's Alibaba's Jack Ma And What's He Up To?

From Wuhan With Love: Munger also lavished praise on China’s government on its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They simply shut down the country for six weeks,” he said. “And that turned out to be exactly the right thing to do.”

Munger’s boss, Warren Buffett, also chimed in on this portion of the CNBC interview with a distinctive view of the pandemic's impact on the U.S. economy.

“I don't know how many, but many hundreds of thousands or millions of small businesses have been hurt in a terrible way,” Buffett observed. “But most of the big, big companies have overwhelmingly done fine, unless they happen to be in cruise lines or, you know, or hotels or something.”

Photo: World Economic Forum via Wikimedia