Editor’s note for Tuesday, August 3, 2021

My thoughts today:

Yesterday, we published our guide to China’s ongoing tech crackdown and predicted that gaming, real estate, advertising, and healthcare may be the next targets. After a statement from the Party’s Propaganda Department on gaming earlier today, gaming stocks plunged.

Moving out of Hong Kong: Initium, an excellent Chinese-language news website, is moving its headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore. It won’t lay off any staff in Hong Kong, but “the announcement comes as news outlets and reporters in the city come under increasing pressure as a result of the national security law,” reports the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), an English-language website that is still holding out in the city.

But one of HKFP’s columnists has decided to leave: Veteran journalist Steve Vines has departed for the U.K., citing the “white terror sweeping through Hong Kong,” according to HKFP.

Not everyone is gloomy on Hong Kong, though: HSBC Asset Management’s Asia Pacific chief investment officer, Cecilia Chan (陈宝枝 Chén Bǎozhī), told the Sydney Morning Herald that “the controversial national security laws had improved the business environment in Hong Kong and had brought stability to the semi-autonomous city.” Chan also “said the government’s moves to rein in its technology giants could boost competition.”

Our word of the day is the game sector plummets (游戏板块暴跌 yóuxì bǎnkuài bàodié).

Upcoming events:

• August 12: The results of the U.S.-China Business Council member survey.
• August 19: How to use your China skills to climb the corporate ladder.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief