Member-only story
China’s richest man is a communist. Why are people shocked?
Jack Ma is the richest man in China. He is worth $35 billion and is the founder and Chairman of Alibaba, one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world. According to most of the world’s press, Ma was recently ‘revealed’ to be a communist, and Western hand-wringing was palpable. For most of China, Southeast Asia, and people familiar with the People’s Republic in general the response was a much more tepid, “Yeah. Duh.” Why are so many people in the west shocked or concerned by the fact that Jack Ma is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)?
For two reasons I think: perceptions of unfairness and general ignorance.
Let’s start with the latter explanation: general ignorance.
Most Americans, probably most non-Chinese around the world in fact, do not understand what the Chinese Communist Party is or its relationship to the Chinese government or the Chinese people. There seem to be two prevailing (and contradictory) misconceptions about the CCP, that every Chinese citizen is a card-carrying Party member or that the Party is…
