Travelers waiting to cross the Hong Kong-China border at Lok Ma Chau, January 8, 2023. Credit: Vernon Yuen via AP Images
If 2021 could be characterized as China’s year of crackdowns, these last few months might be called its season of u-turns.
It’s not just zero-Covid where China has changed its tune. On property, tech, foreign direct investment and diplomacy, Beijing seems to be adjusting its position too. This week, The Wire looks at China’s recent policy changes: the sectors affected, what’s changed, and what may stay the same.
TECH COMPANIES
Background: Private technology companies have had a brutal few years after Beijing launched a slew of investigations and new rules for the sector, hammering their share prices. Some of the hardest hit firms included ride-hailing company Didi, which was forced to delist from the New York Stock Exchange in May; as well as Alibaba and Ant Group, two firms founded by Jack Ma.
What’s changed: In January, Guo Shuqing, the head of China's Central Bank, announced that the campaign to “rectify” Chinese internet companies’ bu
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When China announced it was ending quarantine requirements for incoming travelers, Chinese people collectively picked up their phones to search popular travel apps like Ctrip and Qunar. Owned by travel giant Trip.com, these apps helped Chinese travelers explore the world pre-pandemic and facilitated the human-to-human interactions that drove China's rise. But many of today's travelers seem to be sticking closer to home, and their hesitation to get back to the jetsetting habits of the past 20 years has far-reaching implications — especially for Trip.com.
The professor talks about China's real estate bubble; if China can develop a modern financial system without rule of law; and why it's not China that is reshaping the global order, but the world's response...
