Alibaba has a new shareholder – the Chinese Communist Party

According to a report late last week, an internet regulatory arm of the Chinese government is buying minority shares in an IT subsidiary of online behemoth Alibaba and also in Tencent, parent company of WeChat, presumably in order to gain leverage over business decision-making. The investments are thought to be in the neighborhood of 1 percent of each company and referred to as "golden shares" because they will give the Chinese Communist Party the ability to appoint board directors and influence management decisions.