The talks which were widely reported at the end of this past week are secretive, with an Alibaba spokesperson later denying that there's any intent of a sale. SCMP's CEO Gary Liu and the media organization's co-founder Joe Tsai sent a letter to employees after the reporting which originated in Bloomberg saying there are currently no plans for a change in ownership, denying the story.

But it's well-known that Alibaba has of late come under intense pressure from the Chinese government over a number of its media assets, also amid Jack Ma's own muzzling by Beijing following the great CCP tech crackdown which began in late 2019.

The rumors regarding Beijing's attempts to reign in SCMP have been swirling since last spring, for example when the following began to be reported: 

When Ma's Alibaba Group acquired the South China Morning Post in 2015 from a Malaysian tycoon, amid increasing signs that Beijing was tightening control of Hong Kong, fears swirled that the new ownership would undermine the English-language broadsheet's editorial independence. But Ma and Gary Liu, CEO of the paper since 2017, promised the Post would maintain its editorial independence. Now Chinese government regulators wary of Alibaba's influence that spans from retail and finance to media, have ordered it to sell off its media assets, including the Post, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

And now fast-forward to November, and this past week, with Bloomberg detailing the following: 

A sale to Bauhinia would potentially assuage the government's concerns, as it is fully state owned. It also bolstered its presence in Hong Kong's media scene in April when it agreed to buy a stake in Phoenix Media Investment Holdings Ltd., owner of local broadcaster Phoenix TV.