Jack's a Party Member

Jack Ma is a card-carrying member of the Chinese Communist Party

Well what do you know! Jack Ma Yun is a Communist Party member!

He was outed yesterday in the People's Daily as one of 100 Chinese people who have made extraordinary contributions to the country's development in the past 40 years.

Ma along with Tencent Holdings CEO Pony Ma, Baidu CEO Robin Li, basketball star Yao Ming and volleyball coach Lang Ping were on the list.

Pony Ma of Tencent is on the 100 list, but not a Party member

It is unclear when Ma joined the party and how much money in dues he pays each year.

Interestingly this made huge headlines today, but one should expect that someone as successful as Ma is to have some kind of affiliation with the Party. How else could he succeed?

But he has said before that it's not a good idea to be too close to the Party. In media interviews he would say, "Fall in love with the government, but don't get married."

However, with President Xi Jinping wanting to have greater control over everything, everyone else has to comply, and Ma seems to be one of them.

"We're seeing an increasingly close relationship between China's leading internet companies and government because government sees them as one of the most effective ways to realize its policy initiatives," says Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting.

Xi Jinping visits the cave in Yan'an he spent during his teens

"Being a party member is essentially tipping your hat to the legitimacy of the party and it doesn't necessarily denote any particularly high level of political activity."

Nevertheless, some entrepreneurs are going a step further to demonstrate their loyalty to the Party.

In 2015 Jack Ma visited Yan'an, the city often considered the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Revolution. Pony Ma -- who is not a Party member -- also went to Yan'an this year and even wore a Red Army uniform. Yan'an is also where President Xi spent much of his teenage years.

Ah the symbolism! And the song and dance people need to do to keep in the government's good books...

Tycoon Gives his Two Cents...

Chen rants about localists from his wood-carved throne...

A Shenzhen-based tycoon who chairs the Harmony Club, has urged the Hong Kong government to stop pro-independence localists from damaging the business environment.

Chen Hongtian says he was concerned about the city's political development and was even considering diverting his investments elsewhere.

"Anyone who has a clear mind knows they are causing damage and messing around. They don't want Hong Kong to be good," he said.

Pony Ma of Tencent is a member of the Harmony Club

Ok -- wait right there -- we all want Hong Kong to be good. In what way, that is the question, but we all want the city to be strong economically, politically and socially, but it is the government and its policies and actions that has resulted in the polarization we are experiencing now.

Chen claims his club represents 140 mainland and local tycoons including Tencent chairman and CEO Pony Ma Huateng, Lee Yin-yee, founder of Xinyi Glass Holdings, and Wong Kwong-miu, founder of Centralcon Group.

Eighty percent of them have permanent residency in Hong Kong and have business assets totalling HK$1.68 trillion according to Shenzhen media. Chan himself made headlines when he bought a house in June at 15 Gough Hill Road on the Peak for HK$2.1 billion.

Referring to now barred localists Yau Wai-ching and Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang, Chen says: "I think the Hong Kong government should be firmer in upholding the Basic Law. Such people should not be allowed in the establishment," he said.

Chen's latest acquisition on 15 Gough Hill Road, on the Peak

Uh, they don't want to be the establishment. Perhaps they would like to disrupt the establishment, but actually they have indirectly thanks to Beijing intervening and the Hong Kong government taking them to court.

But it gets better.

"You would be penalized if you said anything against the queen during her rule. Now you talk about the whole country and want to become a legislator? Tell [the two localists] to get out of Hong Kong. I think the Hong Kong government can be even tougher and firmer," Chen says.

Why would the government throw them out of Hong Kong? They were born here. It's laughable that he would even suggest such a thing. A statement like that demonstrates his complete disregard for how rule of law works in the city.

He seems to think money from tycoons like himself rule the city, but maybe that was back in the 80s and early 90s. Thanks to tycoons like him, housing prices have gone up so much that people can barely afford 400 square-foot flats that they would have to mortgage for 30 years because their salaries are so depressed there aren't opportunities to make more money.

Those who voted for Yau and Leung wanted change in the city

As a result, many Hong Kong people have long given up the rat race and are becoming more politically active in the hopes they can make a better future for their children through the ballot box. That's why a record 2.2 million people voted on September 4.

So Mr Chen, this is how Hong Kong works. Yes, Leung and Yau were immature in what they did, but we should not discount that tens of thousands of people voted for them because they believed in what they stand for. This fact cannot be neglected, along with the other localists who were elected into the Legislative Council.

It's interesting that Chen is willing to be so outspoken about this, as if trying to agitate the masses to agree with him. But really tycoons here are the 1 percent, if that. What about the rest of us?