Given the recent decimation in U.S. listed China based stocks, it is becoming abundantly clear who is running the show in China.

And no one person is coming to that realization quicker than Jack Ma. Once revered as a beacon of success and entrepreneurship out of China, Ma's outspoken nature and boisterous antics saw him fall out of favor with the Chinese Communist Party - quickly.

Such was the topic of a new, comprehensive Wall Street Journal report, which detailed the lesson Ma is now learning first hand: there is only one most powerful man in China. 

How did Ma - who now is rarely, if ever, seen in public - fall out of favor with the CCP? He "behaved too much like an American entrepreneur," the report says. 

After Ma gave a speech in October criticizing Chinese regulators for "stifling financial innovation", days later his $34 billion IPO of Ant Group had been blocked by the CCP. Since then, the company has had to restructure its business. 

Within "hours" of his speech in October, state regulators began to compile reports on his companies and their operations.

Additionally, when Ant filed its IPO, the Journal reported that some regulators were "caught off guard" at how big the company's lending business had become. 

Ant was also seen as "acting arrogantly" during its IPO roadshow, requiring people to make presentations if they wanted to invest, and limiting attendance for meetings with the company's executives, the report said. 

And despite the company being in a "silent period" prior to its IPO, Jack Ma instead "live-streamed a singalong last September with Faye Wong, a Chinese pop superstar"