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...

Picture of the Day: Good Company

Pictures from Barack Obama's visit to Great Eastern

We flew to San Francisco this morning and were bleary eyed and tired when we finally arrived at the hotel.

When we wanted to have lunch at around 2.30pm, it turns out many restaurants and cafes are already closed. We had to find something open and in the end the deli across the street solved our hunger pangs with hot pastrami and meatloaf sandwiches.

After a two-hour nap to battle jet lag, we headed to Chinatown for dinner. The restaurant is called Great Eastern Restaurant and it looks like your typical Chinese dining establishment.

Overall the food was average, not particularly sophisticated with really large portions. We had a lettuce wrap, a dry roast chicken, roast duck with steamed pockets, dried tofu with mustard greens, and fish sliced to pieces that were pan-fried while the bones deep-fried.

The highlight was stir-fried crab in a thick sauce that had really fresh meat. The kids at our table weren't that keen in tackling the shellfish, leaving more for us.

After we emerged from the restaurant we noticed a laminated poster. Turns out then US President Barack Obama ate there in 2012 and took pictures with staff, everyone grinning from ear to ear.

Another poster had pictures of other celebrities like basketball player Yao Ming and the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking!

So we were in pretty good company!

Great Eastern Restaurant
649 Jackson Street
San Francisco
(415) 986 2500

Beijing's Deja Vu

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong makes the successful pitch for Beijing

Here we go again -- Beijing has been awarded the rights to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

It was a pretty lopsided race to start with, though the Chinese capital was considered a weak contender in the beginning.

Originally Oslo and Stockholm were the the frontrunners, but each fell out probably due to the fact that their respective residents didn't want to foot the massive bill.

Then it came down to Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Pro-Tibet demonstrators present a dramatic protest

There were concerns Beijing would have no snow, and the usual human rights abuses -- which made me realize this was why dissident artist Ai Weiwei was given back his passport about a week ago. He's now in Germany visiting his son.

While Almaty has tons of natural snow, it didn't have the experience of holding the Games like Beijing did in 2008 (the 7th anniversary is coming up), and its own human rights issues.

Beijing promises it will snow -- dammit we will make it snow! -- by hosting the alpine events in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou (60km and 140km away respectively) from the Chinese capital.

The Chinese delegation also brought out its star power -- Yao Ming and Li Na -- interesting that the retired tennis superstar would be willing to show up, but maybe because she's a mother now, pitching for Beijing gets her some brownie points.

Now there's another reason to use the practically neglected Bird's Nest and other Olympic venues, though Beijing will surely build a few more -- ahead of schedule -- to show that it can.

Now the Chinese government can boast in its promotional literature that it is the first city in the world to host both the Summer and Winter games. It's an easy way for China to hint, Any host city in the United States ever attempted that feat?

Residents in Zhangjiakou hold a sign saying, "We did it!"

Beijing is doing its happy dance now and will do so for the next few days, though the euphoria won't last long. Memories will flood back of hutongs being demolished for Olympic venues and how the city was in lock down mode, where residents couldn't move around freely while the Games were on.

One thinks Beijing's promise of having snow -- some form of it -- on the mountains seems like a huge one that may not be fulfilled, though now that all eyes are on Beijing again, it will have to be on its best behaviour from today until 2022.

Over lunch over a week ago, a hotel executive and I were talking about Vancouver and how he went there to watch the Winter Games.

But he suggested that perhaps to help the ailing Greek economy that it would be best to hold the Summer Games every four years in Athens from now on, where it was originally held thousands of years ago.

He felt cities were needlessly going into debt holding these events, spending money to build Olympic venues that are collecting dust.

What about the Winter Games, I asked? Have them in Vancouver?

He agreed, or to do without them altogether -- after all the Olympics didn't have winter events!

Food for thought...