China is on a regulatory warpath against its own private technology firms. The market value of leading companies listed in Hong Kong and in New York, such as Tencent, Meituan and Alibaba, has fallen by 20 to 40 per cent since February. The crackdown has entailed stricter regulation, tougher oversight with respect to overseas listings, investigations over the use of data, and direct involvement in the operations of several firms.
China’s economic take off over the last decades would never have happened without the productivity and dynamism of its leading businesses, and so how we think about the country’s role in the global financial system is critically dependent on what happens to its private sector and the economy.
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