China's most famous entrepreneur and billionaire has been outed as a card-carrying communist.
Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba (BABA), with a net worth of more than $30 billion, was identified Monday as a Communist Party member by the People's Daily, the ruling party's official newspaper.
The 54-year-old was being honored by the Chinese government as one of 100 people who have made "outstanding contributions" to China's economic transformation in the past four decades.
The revelation — for the first time by state-run national media — comes amid rising concerns over the tightening grip on China's private sector by the Communist Party under President Xi Jinping.
"The fact he is 'outed' as a party member is significant — it's speaking to the times," said Duncan Clark, author of "Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built."