even bizarre performances for alibaba employees. jack ma became china's first celebrity ceo. he's not only famous inside china. >> i guess you have heard of jack. >> he was embraced by the world's most powerful leaders. jack ma seemed more popular and admired than xi jinping. >> young people across the country would have photos up of jack ma above their beds in ways that historically you would have seen for mao. >> to understand how there could be a cult of ma in xi jinping's china, you need to know one thing. >> in the beginning, xi jinping very much needed jack ma. >> china had missed the industrial revolution in the 19th century, and america had invented the internet by the end of the 20th century. >> china was not even connected to the internet yet. we started. >> two decades after deng