Alibaba’s Jack Ma Discards Promise to Create One Million American Jobs

Ma said his commitment was contingent on good relations between the U.S. and China

Yoko Kubota and

Liza Lin

Updated Sept. 20, 2018 4:51 a.m. ET

Chinese technology tycoon Jack Ma is recanting his promise to create one million jobs in the U.S., citing the trade spat between the world’s two biggest economies.

The executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. made the pledge when he met with then-President-elect Trump in January 2017, saying the jobs would be created by supporting more sales by U.S. small businesses on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms.

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