Chinese business tycoon Jack Ma made his first appearance since October 2020.

The video, shot in the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province on January 20, 2021, shows Jack Ma giving a speech to 100 rural teachers via a video call.

Ma said: "In the past five years, we held the award ceremony in Sanya City on every Laba Festival to thank and salute teachers. Due to the pandemic this year, we could not make it. But we will keep our promise and still salute to the teachers."

"We will meet in Sanya City again when the coronavirus pandemic is over."

According to reports, the 56-year-old Ma criticised China's regulators at a conference in Shanghai on October 24, 2020.

Regulators then halted Ma's company, Ant Group, which would have been the world's biggest share offering and launched anti-monopoly investigations into Alibaba and its key competitor Tencent.

Ma then was not seen in public for three months until January 20.

The video was provided by local media with permission.

在公众视野消失了 88 天后，马云终于现身了。2021年1月20日，记者从杭州阿里巴巴集团获悉，当天上午，马云通过视频连线形式，与全国100名乡村教师“云”见面，并线上讲话，他说：“等疫情过去了，我们再见面！”（视频由浙江台提供）