Editor’s note for Tuesday, November 10, 2020

My thoughts today:

It’s a week after the surprise suspension of Alibaba affiliate Ant Group’s dual listing on Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets, which was to have been the world’s largest IPO. As we noted in our report: “Tencent can expect scrutiny, too.”

Today brings news that Chinese regulators are taking the country’s entire tech sector to task, with newly drafted antitrust regulations that will probably bring scrutiny to Tencent, Meituan, JD.com, and also to Ant Group parent company Alibaba and many other tech companies. The government probably has popular support — the suspension of Ant Group’s IPO was cheered by many Chinese people on social media, some of whom described the company as a “loan shark.”

Canada-China relations, as you know, are not copacetic right now. This is the result of some remarkably rapid changes — the two countries formalized diplomatic ties in 1970, and relations have generally been good since then. Many of the factors that have led to tensions have really been beyond Canada’s control, such as the Mèng Wǎnzhōu 孟晚舟 affair (Canada arrested her, but it was under treaty obligation).  

To reflect on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Canada and China, the Canadian International Council is publishing a series of articles on the relationship. Here’s the third in the series, on Human Rights, by Pitman B. Potter, who recommends “selective engagement” which “offers a useful alternative to relational discourses that either subordinate frank discussion on China’s abuses of human rights and rule of law to the broad imperative of maintaining friendly relations or else reject the possibility of positive relations altogether.”

Finally, a correction: In our recent story on China’s new COVID-19 entry bans on citizens of certain countries, we originally stated that China’s travel ban in March barred “even permanent residency holders from entering.” This is incorrect, as the ban applied to those holding temporary residence permits, but did not affect those with a Permanent Resident Certificate.

Our word of the day is Antitrust guidelines for the [internet] platform economy: 关于平台经济领域的反垄断指南 guānyú píngtái jīngjì lǐngyù de fǎn lǒngduàn zhǐnán.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief