Chinese tech giant Tencent is under investigation by the Chinese Communist Party over monopolistic behavior, becoming the latest internet group after Jack Ma’s Alibaba to be targeted by the authorities, Radio Free Asia reported on Monday.

The central inspection team, which answers to the 376-member Central Committee — the core of senior Chinese Communist Party cadres, has carried out a series of investigations at Tencent’s headquarters in Shenzhen since last week, the United States government-funded broadcaster said.

“The practice should be similar to that with Alibaba, which was clearly related to anti-monopoly,” RFA cited a source surnamed Sun as saying.

“Commercial monopoly” was the justification give by the authorities for their probe, the source told RFA, adding that Chinese officials did not wish to see private companies grow too big.

Tencent — which has recently been penalized for failing to declare past acquisitions and joint ventures that affected market concentration — confirmed last week to the Financial Times that it was in discussions with regulators.

The company was “actively cooperating with the regulatory authorities” on various issues, including “sorting out some of these past investments,” chief executive Pony Ma told the Financial Times in a statement.

Ma met with regulatory officials to discuss how to better comply with competition rules in early March, when the Communist Party was convening its week-long annual plenary session, Reuters reported, citing sources. It was generally felt that Tencent would be the next target on the Party’s radar after Alibaba.

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