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The People's Daily revealed Ma's Party membership in a list of
100 people it said had helped drive the country "reform and
opening up" process. Ma is China's richest man with a fortune of
$35.8 billion, according to Forbes.
It was unclear why the paper chose to mention Ma's affiliation
now but it comes amid a push by Beijing to bring the country's
private enterprises more in line with Party values, especially
in the technology sector that has grown rapidly, driven by the
successes of private firms.
Ma, who announced in September he would step down as Alibaba
chairman next year, is China's highest-profile business leader.
He has acted as an adviser to political leaders in Asia and
Europe and fostered big ambitions in the United States.
He has driven Alibaba to become a $390 billion giant, which
dominates China's online retail market, stretches from logistics
to social media, and has spawned a separate fintech empire
around popular payment platform Alipay.
Ma's political affiliation came as a surprise to many.
Results from domestic search engine Baidu Inc, when asked "is
Jack Ma a Communist Party member", also mostly said that he was
not.
Alibaba declined to comment on Ma's Party membership, but said
political ties did not impact the firm's operations.
"Political affiliation of any executive does not influence the
company's business decision-making process," a spokesperson said
in emailed comments to Reuters on Tuesday.
"We follow all laws and regulations in countries where we
operate as we fulfil our mission of making it easier for people
to do business anywhere in the digital era."
The People's Daily list also included Baidu head Robin Li and
Tencent Holding Ltd chief Pony Ma, though did not name either of
them as Party members. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent together make
up the "BAT" trio of China's top tech firms.
The paper did not say when Ma had become a Party member.
(Reporting by Adam Jourdan and John Ruwitch; Editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise and Himani Sarkar)
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