China’s backtracking on its new video gaming regulations show how ‘shock and awe’ regulation has gone out of style.
People play E-sports games at the Intel ThundeRobot booth during the 2023 China International Consumer Electronics Expo at the Qingdao International Convention and Exhibition Center, May 17, 2023. Credit: Zhang Guangming/VCG via Getty Images
For China’s video game makers, it must have seemed a case of ‘Here we go again’ when — just before Christmas — regulators announced a new set of draft rules aimed at curbing Chinese gamers’ addiction to, and excessive spending on, their products.
Beijing’s apparently renewed antipathy towards the tech sector certainly spooked investors, wiping out almost $100 billion of the gaming companies’ market value since the draft rules came out on December 22. Industry leaders Tenc
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If Xi Jinping is becoming more preoccupied with internal politics, it could lead to a period of relative calm in China’s relations with the United States.
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