Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned major technology companies that the government will take even harsher action against the abuse of substantial market positions and that the sector will be more closely monitored.
Beijing thus seems to strengthen further its campaign to curb the tech sector.
Xi attended a meeting of senior Communist Party financial advisers on Monday. According to state channel CCTV, he said there that the Chinese government would take even harder against monopolies of large internet companies. There will also be more supervision of the collection of user data by tech companies and their financial activities.
Last week it was announced that the Chinese market authority had fined twelve companies, including the large internet group Tencent, for unfair competition. Investors fear that Tencent will have to transfer its WeChat Pay payment service to a separate company, which will then be more regulated as a bank.
Earlier, the major IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai of Ant Financial, a subsidiary of Alibaba, was cancelled at the last minute due to objections from regulators. That probably had to do with critical comments from Alibaba founder Jack Ma about the Chinese government.