Chinese businessman Jack Ma, chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba, is a member of the Communist Party, the People’s Daily reported on Monday. The daily is the party’s official newspaper and revealed Ma’s membership in a list of 100 achievers to be honoured by the party’s Central Committee.

Ma is China’s richest man with a fortune of $35.8 billion, according to Forbes.

The party plans to award the founders of China’s three internet giants – Baidu’s Robin Li, Tencent’s Pony Ma, and Alibaba’s Jack Ma – for their contributions to “reform and opening up”. “Ma, 54, a CPC member, has been a huge driving force for domestic demand,” said the newspaper. “Under his leadership, Alibaba ranks among the top 10 global companies in terms of market value, making China a leading player in the international e-commerce industry, internet finance and cloud computing, spawning a large number of entrepreneurs and start-ups.”

The party’s list of 100 names includes achievers from different walks of life, including politicians, businessmen, economists, scientists, astronauts and artists. While most of them are members of the Communist Party, those like Robin Li and Pony Ma are not affiliated to any political outfit.

While Alibaba declined to comment on Ma’s party membership, it said that political ties had no impact on the company’s operations, Reuters reported. “Political affiliation of any executive does not influence the company’s business decision-making process,” said a spokesperson. “We follow all laws and regulations in countries where we operate as we fulfill our mission of making it easier for people to do business anywhere in the digital era.”

The development comes amid the government’s attempts to bring private companies, especially those working in the technology sector, in sync with the values of the Communist Party.

Ma co-founded Alibaba with 17 other people, some of whom were his students, out of his apartment in Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang province. He helped build it into a $420-billion company with more than 500 million Chinese customers. Ma had earlier announced that he would step down as the group’s executive chairman in September next year.

Apart from e-commerce, Alibaba also handles digital payments, online banking, cloud computing and digital media and entertainment.