Alibaba Group Holding cofounder Jack Ma (馬雲) is among the world’s richest people, but he has emerged as a member of another club: the 89 million-strong Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The billionaire’s Communist bona fides were on Monday revealed by the People’s Daily, the CCP’s official mouthpiece, in an article praising contributors to China’s development.
He is not the first nor likely the last Chinese super-rich capitalist to join the party, which counts property titan Xu Jiayin (許家印) and Wanda Group founder Wang Jianlin (王健林) among its billionaire members.
Photo: AFP
However, Ma’s membership had not been known until now, as China’s richest man had previously suggested that he preferred to stay out of politics.
The newspaper said Ma was a CCP member who has played an important role in pushing China’s Belt and Road Initiative — a pet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
He has also been honored as one of the “outstanding builders of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Zhejiang Province,” where Alibaba is based, the daily said.
Joining the party can be helpful to businesspeople as they navigate a complicated business environment where the state-led economy dominates many industries and private enterprise can be unwelcome.
Xi has renewed a push to expand the CCP’s influence in private businesses, requiring any company with more than three party members to set up a party cell, or if lacking numbers, join with nearby firms.
Three in four private companies in China already host party organizations.
“We must do a good job in the education and management of party members and guide them to play an active role,” Xi told officials in Shanghai earlier this month, noting the increase in private and new types of employment.
Xi is pushing to further intertwine the CCP and business, with the latest rewrite to the rules for party organizations published on Sunday by the official Xinhua news agency.
The party cells should “guide and supervise the enterprise to strictly abide by national laws and regulations,” the draft order says.
Ma did not reveal his CCP membership in paperwork filed for Alibaba’s 2014 initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. It is not known if Ma was a member at the time.
A spokeswoman for Alibaba declined to comment.
Ma — who announced in September that he would step down as head of Alibaba next year — has previously indicated he preferred to keep the Chinese state at arm’s length.
“My philosophy is to be in love with the government, but never marry them,” he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2007.
However, party members must hold up their right fist and recite an oath upon joining.
“Be loyal to the party, work actively, fight for communism all one’s life, always be prepared to sacrifice everything for the party and people, and never betray the party,” they recite.
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