From today’s WSJ. May not be relevant to us but surely can’t hurt.
China Plans Reprieve for Tech Giants, Including Delaying New Rules, as Economy Slows
SINGAPORE—China is preparing to hit pause on its monthslong campaign against technology companies, according to people familiar with the matter, as officials seek to arrest a rapid deterioration in the country’s economic outlook.
China’s top internet regulator is set to meet next week with the country’s embattled tech giants to discuss the regulatory campaign, according to the people, who described the meeting as a sign that officials acknowledge the toll the regulations have had on the private sector at a time when China’s economic outlook is increasingly clouded due to strict Covid measures.
The government has already taken such measures in managing internet-content companies such as ByteDance Ltd., the owner of buzzy short-video platform TikTok, and Weibo Corp., operator of the eponymous Twitter-like microblogging
Now, the plan is likely to be expanded to other technology platform operators such as Tencent Holdings Ltd., China’s most valuable company, and Meituan, which runs one of China’s biggest food-delivery services, this person said.
Next week’s scheduled meeting, between the Cyberspace Administration of China and tech giants including Tencent and Meituan, comes after a year in which regulatory uncertainty has triggered a wave of stock selloffs and job layoffs across the industry.
Representatives from Tencent, Meituan and the CAC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The South China Morning Post reported earlier on next week’s meeting.
Any loosening of regulations for the tech sector would underscore the importance of economic stability for Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a key political year in which he is expected to break with recent precedent and seek a third term in power.
Supporting the tech sector could help China’s economy at a time when forecasters are rapidly downgrading their expectations for growth this year amid the spread of the Omicron variant, which has led to the monthlong lockdown of Shanghai, the country’s biggest and wealthiest city, and which now threatens to paralyze Beijing, the capital.
In a Friday meeting of China’s top decision-making body chaired by Mr. Xi, senior Communist Party officials said that they would carry to completion their campaign against internet companies.
But notably, they did so without giving a concrete timeline, while making clear that any oversight would be more standardized to “support the healthy development of the firms”—relatively dovish language that fueled double-digit-percentage jumps in the share prices of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other Chinese tech stocks.
More broadly, China’s leadership said in a readout of the meeting that it would step up policy support to meet its target of expanding gross domestic product by about 5.5% this year—a target that most economists think China will miss as the world’s second-largest economy faces rising risks from Covid-19 outbreaks and the war in Ukraine.
China’s cabinet said after a Wednesday meeting that it will continue to promote the development of internet companies to create more jobs. At a separate meeting a day earlier, Mr. Xi called for an increase in infrastructure spending to boost the economy.
The Journal reported this week that Mr. Xi had told officials to ensure that the country’s economic growth outpaces that of the U.S. this year, a mandate that government agencies plan to fulfill by accelerating large-scale construction projects in the manufactur-ing, technology, energy and food sectors.
China Plans Reprieve for Tech Giants, Including Delaying New Rules, as Economy Slows
SINGAPORE—China is preparing to hit pause on its monthslong campaign against technology companies, according to people familiar with the matter, as officials seek to arrest a rapid deterioration in the country’s economic outlook.
China’s top internet regulator is set to meet next week with the country’s embattled tech giants to discuss the regulatory campaign, according to the people, who described the meeting as a sign that officials acknowledge the toll the regulations have had on the private sector at a time when China’s economic outlook is increasingly clouded due to strict Covid measures.
The government has already taken such measures in managing internet-content companies such as ByteDance Ltd., the owner of buzzy short-video platform TikTok, and Weibo Corp., operator of the eponymous Twitter-like microblogging
Now, the plan is likely to be expanded to other technology platform operators such as Tencent Holdings Ltd., China’s most valuable company, and Meituan, which runs one of China’s biggest food-delivery services, this person said.
Next week’s scheduled meeting, between the Cyberspace Administration of China and tech giants including Tencent and Meituan, comes after a year in which regulatory uncertainty has triggered a wave of stock selloffs and job layoffs across the industry.
Representatives from Tencent, Meituan and the CAC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The South China Morning Post reported earlier on next week’s meeting.
Any loosening of regulations for the tech sector would underscore the importance of economic stability for Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a key political year in which he is expected to break with recent precedent and seek a third term in power.
Supporting the tech sector could help China’s economy at a time when forecasters are rapidly downgrading their expectations for growth this year amid the spread of the Omicron variant, which has led to the monthlong lockdown of Shanghai, the country’s biggest and wealthiest city, and which now threatens to paralyze Beijing, the capital.
In a Friday meeting of China’s top decision-making body chaired by Mr. Xi, senior Communist Party officials said that they would carry to completion their campaign against internet companies.
But notably, they did so without giving a concrete timeline, while making clear that any oversight would be more standardized to “support the healthy development of the firms”—relatively dovish language that fueled double-digit-percentage jumps in the share prices of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other Chinese tech stocks.
More broadly, China’s leadership said in a readout of the meeting that it would step up policy support to meet its target of expanding gross domestic product by about 5.5% this year—a target that most economists think China will miss as the world’s second-largest economy faces rising risks from Covid-19 outbreaks and the war in Ukraine.
China’s cabinet said after a Wednesday meeting that it will continue to promote the development of internet companies to create more jobs. At a separate meeting a day earlier, Mr. Xi called for an increase in infrastructure spending to boost the economy.
The Journal reported this week that Mr. Xi had told officials to ensure that the country’s economic growth outpaces that of the U.S. this year, a mandate that government agencies plan to fulfill by accelerating large-scale construction projects in the manufactur-ing, technology, energy and food sectors.
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