The founder of Alibaba, Ma Yun, is a member of the Chinese Communist Party: the past and present of Chinese private entrepreneurs – BBC News

Chinese official newspaper "People's Daily" has already published a list of people who have made a remarkable contribution to China's reform and openness, including Yao Ming and other famous personalities. Ma Yun, the founder of China's e-commerce giant, is also on the list. The profile written by the People's Daily tells him that he belongs to the Communist Party.

According to the People's Daily, Alibaba has created the world's largest e-commerce platform and has become a powerful driver of China's domestic demand, under the leadership of Ma Yun, which has propelled China into the world of e-commerce, Internet finance and cloud computing ". In the international competition, it is at the top level. "

Only 20 years ago, private Chinese entrepreneurs still could not become communists. To date, Chinese entrepreneurs such as Xu Jiayin, founder of China Evergrande, and Wang Jianlin, president of Dalian Wanda, have publicly revealed their membership in the Communist Party for a long time, but Ma Yun has confirmed it for the first time .

"Constructors of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics"

The story of the Chinese Communist Party allowing private entrepreneurs to become members of the party dates back to the speech of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin in 2001. In his speech on July 1, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, he described independent entrepreneurs and private entrepreneurs as "builders of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics" and treated them politically as the other social clbades.

The Chinese agency "Xinhua News Agency" reported in August of the same year that the Communist Party had listed the conditions allowing many entrepreneurs to join the Communist Party, especially that they were to be law-abiding "patriotic citizens", without taxes and that they had to return the bulk of their profits to the operations of the company.

The article in the Xinhua News Agency also said that allowing entrepreneurs to become party members can "help the Communist Party to increase its influence on this new social clbad".

The CPC revised the party's constitution at the 16th National Congress held a year after Jiang Zemin's speech, allowing "workers, peasants, soldiers and intellectuals" to also allow "advanced elements of other social clbades" to affiliate. At the same conference, for the first time, private Chinese entrepreneurs were elected representatives of the National Party Congress, with a total of seven. This number has increased in several meetings in the future.

Unexpectedly

The American website Financial Information Business Insider, quoted by Chinese political observer Bill Bishop, said that Ma Yun was not a member of the Communist Party, but this information once again reminds the rulers of Beijing that she keeps growing. The influence of all walks of life in China.

Bishop said the news "would give some reasons for the relaunch of foreign regulators who are wary of Chinese companies."

Ma Yun had previously bought the Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post". The news that he is a member of the Communist Party has again raised concerns about the editorial independence of the South China Morning Post. The South China Morning Post, quoted by AFP, said the political links of Alibaba's executives "will have no impact on editorial or commercial decisions".

Chinese model

According to Robin Brant, BBC correspondent in Shanghai, Ma Rong's participation in the Communist Party may be nothing more than tearing the links apart, but Bai Luobin said Ma Yun could actually think that the model Chinese worked. In economic power, while allowing the government to continue to control more than 100 giant state enterprises, but also to let the Communist Party continue to govern. "

While private entrepreneurs can join the Communist Party, many Chinese private companies have established their own Communist Party committees within the enterprise, but the most attractive are the party committees of many Chinese technology companies.

Ma Yun's Alibaba established a branch of the Communist Party within the society in 1999. In 2015, the group had 2,094 members. Baidu, Sina, Tencent and other Chinese technology giants respectively set up party committees.

The Chinese official newspaper Global Times published a comment after Xiaomi's party committee was created in 2015, saying Xiaomi's decision "should receive applause from the company." Almost more discussed as a political subject.

A party committee that makes the company "unconvinced"

But for some Chinese private companies with activities in foreign countries, it is not a good thing to create a Communist Party Committee. In recent years, countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have restricted or prohibited certain technology companies from investing locally for network or national security reasons, the party secretary being one of the concerns of foreign governments.

As early as 2012, a report by the US House Intelligence Commission reported that the two Chinese telecommunications giants, Huawei and ZTE, had recognized before the US Congress a Communist Party Committee within the company, without however explaining the work of the committee. party to Congress.

The report also stated that the existence of the party committee allowed the Chinese government "to have the opportunity to influence the decision and the operation of the enterprise" and proposed to ban both companies to acquire or merge with other companies in the United States.