Editor’s note for Friday, December 11, 2020
A note from the editor of today’s The China Project Access newsletter.
My thoughts today:
Beijing is going to squeeze Tencent, Alibaba, and all other dominant internet companies in China: The suspension of Ant Group’s IPO was just one of the opening volleys of the battle to come. This was made even clearer today with the publication of a readout from a meeting of the Politburo on economic affairs.
Zichen Wang, who works for Chinese state media but has an independent mind and an email newsletter, summarized:
Friday’s Politburo meeting readout [English, Chinese] includes a market-moving signal encompassing politics, competition, and Chinese Big Tech… The meeting demands to ‘reinforce anti-monopoly and prevent capital from expanding in a disorderly fashion.’
Albeit brief, it is an unprecedented, strongly-worded, and pointed statement that has never been seen from such a high-level political platform.
This week is the third-year anniversary of the disappearance of Uyghur anthropologist Rahile Dawut. Her daughter and students have made a moving video to commemorate the grim occasion and remind the world of her captivity.
Our word of the day is reinforce anti-monopoly and prevent capital from expanding in a disorderly fashion (反垄断和防止资本无序扩张 fǎn lǒngduàn hé fángzhǐ zīběn wúxù kuòzhāng).
—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief
