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China releases a five-year regulation blueprint for broader crackdown

89 points| dlau1 | 4 years ago |bloombergquint.com

109 comments

order

SubiculumCode|4 years ago

I have a fairly dim view of China's ethics and respect for human rights, and so tend to suspect the worst; however, the hyper-competition in China's production industries has led to product ecosystems rife with unsafe materials (e.g. lead), and other cut corners. Now that many Chinese are able to purchase the things they produce, I can imagine that safety regulations are starting to be demanded by the public, and that is a good thing. Nevertheless, I am sure this push will also be used to further crackdown on political dissent and to consolidate power, I can well imagine.

cheriot|4 years ago

> I can imagine that safety regulations are starting to be demanded by the public, and that is a good thing

I remember seeing a sign at the Hong Kong border when going to the mainland warning that there was a maximum amount of infant formula that could be taken across. Hopefully this is that crackdown.

echaozh|4 years ago

This thing can be good for the Chinese people, but it's CCP, so yeah, it must be evil intentioned.

I don't know if you really mean it or you are forced to well imagine it so your comment won't be downvoted.

itmayno|4 years ago

USSR followed the same path when their citizens grumbled about liberalization. State owned enterprises are now seizing power from private companies and foreign entities. Pretty soon you are going to see replays of USSR SoE dominance such as lack of innovation, bread lines, inefficient operation, and corruption. It seems xi jing ping did not fully study the downfall of USSR after all.

cucumb3rrelish|4 years ago

they really are keen on annoying investors aren't they. i wonder for how long tencent and the other conglomerates will obey these orders

tablespoon|4 years ago

> they really are keen on annoying investors aren't they. i wonder for how long tencent and the other conglomerates will obey these orders

They will obey as long as the state has power, which will be for the far foreseeable future.

The Chinese government has been smart enhance its power by keeping its domestic businesses in a strictly subordinate position and creating an environment were foreign businesses cooperate because dependence is the best business decision (e.g. Apple has no "plan B," it's China all the way for them).

And it might work out for them, especially if foreign nations continue to complacently indulge in free market Kool-Aid.

bilbo0s|4 years ago

i wonder for how long tencent and the other conglomerates will obey these orders

Strange question with what I would consider to be an obvious answer. They will obey for as long as they want the profits they get from China's market of video game players for instance. Which strikes me as pretty much "forever".

What company is gonna leave and give that kind of gift wrapped profit center to someone else voluntarily?

RcouF1uZ4gsC|4 years ago

> i wonder for how long tencent and the other conglomerates will obey these orders

Probably as long as the regulation exists. It is amazing, but once there is the real threat of personal, physical imprisonment, most CEOs are pretty good about making sure regulations get followed despite any impact on the stock price.

Alupis|4 years ago

If they can make Jack Ma disappear for months over some casual comments - I think executives at these conglomerates understand the message pretty clearly.

mc32|4 years ago

You can’t just ignore regulation in the jurisdiction you’re doing business. Like it or not, they will have to follow regulation or cease operations.

yogthos|4 years ago

I don't think they give a shit about investors actually.

eunos|4 years ago

My tinfoil hats say that they realize that we are in the age of ultra loose monetary policy, so abundance of capital. Therefore it's time to clean the house. Gonna spook investors of course, but hey all other places offer zero or minus yield rate, China still has positive yield anyway.

AzzieElbab|4 years ago

they are not trying to be annoying, they are incompatible with free markets, and free flows of info.

csense|4 years ago

They'll obey as long as they are run by people who have families that can be threatened.

SubiculumCode|4 years ago

It will be interesting to see what a mass exodus of investment money leaving China does to their economy and geopolitics.

Edit: If

kps|4 years ago

> “Strengthen the construction of the national ‘Internet + supervision’ system, and realize the integration and aggregation of data from supervision platforms by the end of 2022.”

I'll bet they're pleased with you-know-who's you-know-what.

yorwba|4 years ago

"Internet+ supervision" doesn't refer to supervision of the internet, but using the internet to make supervisory agencies in general more efficient. E.g. this post by the Zhejiang Archives from 2019 http://www.zjda.gov.cn/art/2019/6/10/art_1378485_34553497.ht... mentions that employees no longer have to carry around documents and manually fill them in to do their work, but can use an app for that.

The part you quoted probably means they want to get to the point where if someone in Jiangsu needs documents archived in Zhejiang, they can just access them through a unified platform instead of having to ask their colleagues there to send them over.

warning26|4 years ago

Translation: get ready for arbitrary enforcement of nebulous, ill-defined standards!

Barrin92|4 years ago

explicit goal is actually the opposite and it's likely not just empty words. If you've done business in China as a foreigner over the last few years the court system in particular has actually become more reliable and noticeably quicker. It used to be way more arbitrary and chaotic about ten-ish years ago.

ep103|4 years ago

Selective enforcement is a feature, not a bug, of authoritarian systems

jet_32951|4 years ago

Nice golden goose you have there. It sure would be a shame if anything happened to it.

fw4h5|4 years ago

[deleted]

PicassoCTs|4 years ago

Im by now convinced that xi jinping, in the back of his mind, hates the communist party and its apparatus, and wants to destroy it by going back to a north-korea style totalitarianism, against which the citizens will rebel en mass.

kragen|4 years ago

What, like the North Koreans are rebelling en masse?

thombee|4 years ago

are you actually serious LOL

RegnisGnaw|4 years ago

I take a much dimmer view of this. Xi knows that climate change is coming and its going to be really bad. One of the issues coming from climate change is food shortage.

Food shortage is going to cause riots in US, Canada, and EU for sure. Just based on the vaccine protests/riots, imagine what will happen when rationing is introduced.

He's going to crack down hard and control the population, so when the inevitable comes there is acceptence.

nickff|4 years ago

Xi is just trying to centralize party control over the country, and solidify his grip on it. This is very common in dictatorships, take North Korea for example.

flavius29663|4 years ago

The US and EU are massive food exporters (the largest in the world). The US even burns a lot of its corn in car engines...

1MachineElf|4 years ago

>He's going to crack down hard and control the population, so when the inevitable comes there is acceptence

I'm curious how that will work. Are you saying CCP propaganda on TikTok is going to ease famine?

websites2023|4 years ago

>Food shortage is going to cause riots in US, Canada, and EU for sure

The US (along with France) can easily supply all the food they need to its citizens. Along with the alliances with Mexico and Canada, the US is not going to have food shortages, much less riots.

China, on the other hand, is definitely screwed on this front. All of its neighbors are either outright enemies or begrudging allies. As the global order continues to collapse, China will see constraints on its shipping routes that will lead to shortages of key goods.

The food shortages won't hit as bad, though, since the population is declining. Just not fast enough, unfortunately.

thombee|4 years ago

this "take" makes literally no sense.

FredPret|4 years ago

Global warming will be good for crops if anything.

Not saying it’s a good thing overall of course.