William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."
Over the years, Jack Ma cited any number of inspirations for his meteoric rise: Masayoshi Son, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, martial arts novelist Jin Yong. Sadly, China's most celebrated tech innovator may now be drawing on the lessons of exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
