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China’s crackdowns
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New China policies to support Big Tech platforms in innovation, globalisation, official newspaper says

  • News of the policies aligns with political messaging in Beijing that the months-long crackdowns on the tech sector would start to ease
  • Crackdowns that started at the end of 2020 have wiped about US$2 trillion in value from Chinese tech stocks, compounding pandemic-fuelled economic woes

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A public screen displays the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Hang Seng Index figures in Shanghai on February 7, 2022. Months of crackdowns on the tech sector have taken a heavy toll on related Chinese stocks, on domestic and foreign exchanges, but restrictive measures could start to ease. Photo: Bloomberg
Tracy Qu

China is working on a slew of policies to support the country’s Big Tech platforms with innovation and globalisation, a shift in Beijing’s hardline regulatory stance on internet companies, according to a front-page editorial in the Economic Daily, a state-run Communist Party newspaper.

The period of extraordinary regulation over China’s technology giants, which started in late 2020, will come to an end, giving way to market-based and rule-of-law supervision to create a good environment for the growth of the country’s internet platforms, according to the editorial, published on Thursday.

The piece echoes a message delivered at the most recent Politburo meeting last weekend, where officials voiced support for measures assisting in the “healthy development” of the platform economy. The meeting raised hopes that the 18-month regulatory storm, which has wiped about US$2 trillion in market value from Chinese tech stocks, could soon fizzle out.

“The platform economy is also of great significance to China’s economic development, and has played an irreplaceable role in stabilising growth, safeguarding jobs and promoting development,” read the editorial, which did not carry a byline. “How long the positive market mood can last depends on when and how strong the specific support measures are rolled out.”

“Relative departments need to make it happen soon and ensure that platforms can focus on development and get their energy back,” it added.

The new measures will allow Big Tech firms to play a role in upgrading China’s manufacturing, promoting digitalisation of agriculture, and stimulating consumer spending, according to the paper.

The commentary was published amid widespread expectations that regulators would begin easing the months-long crackdown on tech giants and give the sector a bigger role in boosting a slowing economy. A symposium was planned for after the Labour Day holiday, which ended on Wednesday, to reassure tech executives that surprise fines and “rectification” measures would come to an end, the South China Morning Post reported last week.
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