Zhejiang provincial party secretary’s visit to Alibaba a sign of support for Big Tech after 2 years of regulatory pressure

The new provincial communist party secretary of Zhejiang, home province of Alibaba Group Holding, visited the e-commerce giant’s campus on Sunday, in a show of support for the Chinese technology company after Beijing signalled a policy shift on Friday.

Yi Lianhong, who was named the top communist party official in Zhejiang this month, urged the company to “strive to be a model student of normative development [and] a leader of innovative development”, according to the official Zhejiang Daily.

Yi is the first senior Chinese government official to visit Alibaba since it was placed under an antitrust investigation two years ago. The visit came two days after China’s central economic working conference, chaired by President Xi Jinping, issued a statement saying that the country’s Big Tech platform enterprises, such as Alibaba, would be encouraged to “fully display their capabilities” in growth, job creation and international competition.

Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

At Alibaba, Yi repeated the line and urged the firm to “adhere to development and regulation” and to “unleash innovation dynamics and enhance core competitiveness”, according to the Zhejiang Daily report. At the same time, the new provincial party secretary said capital investment and expansion has to be regulated.

Alibaba, which has been a major business operation in Zhejiang for years, has been the target of regulatory scrutiny over the past two years. In 2021, it was fined a record 18.2 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion) for monopolistic behaviour, while Viya, one of the top live-streaming hosts on its e-commerce platform, was erased from China’s cyberspace after she was accused of tax irregularities.