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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, which was caught in a regulatory scrutiny sometime ago for monopolistic market practices, has now announced an investment of 100 billion yuan ($15.5 billion) by 2025 to support its President Xi Jinping&rsquo;s call for &quot;common prosperity&quot;.</p>
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In April, the company was slapped a fine of a whopping 18.2 billion yuan accounting for 4 per cent of its total domestic revenue in 2019 for violating the Anti-Monopoly Law.</p>
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According to Chinese news platform CGTN, Alibaba, once led by the iconic billionaire Jack Ma, said that the funds will be used to &ldquo;promote investments in technology, support small and medium-sized enterprises, foster development in rural areas and improve insurance protection for gig economy workers, including deliverymen and ride-hailing drivers.&rdquo;</p>
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<strong>Also read: <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/world-news/china-cracks-down-on-ride-hailing-giant-didi-accuses-firm-of-leaking-data-to-us-99867.html">China cracks down on ride-hailing giant Didi, accuses firm of leaking data to US</a></strong></p>
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The clamp down on Ma and his companies shocked not just China&rsquo;s private sector but sent jitters the world over.</p>
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Alibaba is not alone. Other companies including food delivery giant Meituan, e-commerce player Pinduoduo and tech giant Tencent too have announced their commitment towards shouldering Xi&rsquo;s &quot;common prosperity&quot; drive.</p>
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Pinduoduo has already announced a 10 billion yuan initiative for farmers&#39; welfare. Last month Tencent said that it would double the amount of money allocated for social responsibility programmes to about $15 billion.</p>
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While China&rsquo;s common prosperity drive aims to redistribute income in the country, this has created an environment of uncertainty for the private sector.</p>
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