Alibaba founder Jack Ma is a member of the Communist Party

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.