Joseph Tsai lands in Munich as Alibaba faces regulatory scrutiny and Pentagon list backlash

Joseph Tsai flew from Amsterdam to Munich on June 11, a short 62-minute hop aboard his Gulfstream G700 (VP-COR) after arriving from Zurich earlier that day. The trip comes during a turbulent week for Alibaba, the e-commerce and tech giant Tsai co-founded and serves as executive vice chairman.

The same week Tsai landed in Bavaria, Beijing's market regulator summoned Alibaba, JD.com, and other platforms over misleading promotions during the “618” shopping festival, sending Alibaba's Hong Kong shares down 5.4 percent on June 11, per Bloomberg. Separately, the Pentagon added Alibaba to its list of Chinese military-linked companies on June 8, a designation the company said it will challenge, as reported by CNA. Munich has no obvious sports or concert connection for Tsai, who owns the Brooklyn Nets; the more likely explanation is a board or investment meeting in Europe, a pattern reflected in recent flights that have zigzagged from Zurich to Amsterdam to Munich over the past several days.