China sends another strong signal of support for Big Tech companies as Beijing seeks to bolster faltering economy
- Readout by Chinese state television after the conclusion of a two-day Central Economic Work Conference signals support for Big Tech
- China’s leadership reiterated that it will support the ‘digital economy’ and it will improve its ‘normalised regulatory’ performance.
China’s leadership headed by President Xi Jinping has asked that the country’s Big Tech firms play a full role in leading economic growth, creating jobs and engaging in international competition, in the strongest signal yet that a two-year period of intense scrutiny is almost over.
China’s “platform enterprises”, which means large internet firms such as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, will be supported to “fully display their capabilities” in bolstering economic growth, job creation and international competition, according to a readout by Chinese state television after the conclusion of a two-day Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing on Friday.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
The closed-door annual meeting convened by the Central Committee of the Communist Party sets the tone and draft policy guidelines for the world’s second-largest economy.
In the 2020 economic work conference, Beijing pledged to prevent the “disorderly expansion of capital” and the past two years has seen an unprecedented regulatory crackdown on the country’s technology firms, ranging from content, data security to mergers and acquisition activity. The action has seen billions of dollars knocked off the market value of leading tech firms, the postponement of several big IPOs and rising job cuts.
Hefty fines were also levied on Alibaba and delivery services giant Meituan for abuse of their dominant market positions.