One of China’s most influential financial tech companies, Ant Group, said on Saturday that the billionaire entrepreneur, Jack Ma, planned to relinquish control of the company.Mr. Ma’s retreat from the company he founded comes after the ruling Communist Party waged an unprecedented crackdown on Big Tech. Beijing had made Mr. Ma’s Ant Group and its sister company, the e-commerce giant, Alibaba, the crown jewels of his online empire, early targets in the campaign to curb the power of internet giants. Chinese officials had forced Ant Group to call off what would have been a blockbuster initial public offering in 2020 and later fined Alibaba a hefty $2.8 billion for abusing its dominance. Last year, Ant Group said it would undertake a major government-ordered overhaul of its business to address regulators’ concerns about unfair competition and the amount of data it collects on users. Under Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, B …
