BEIJING: The strongest sign yet is that a two-year period of intense scrutiny is coming to an end, China's leadership has said with President Xi Jinping, who has asked the country's big tech firms to do their best to drive economic growth, create jobs.
China platform enterprises, according to a readout by Chinese state television after the conclusion of a two-day Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing on Friday.
The companies, which include large Internet companies such as Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, will be encouraged to "fully demonstrate their potential" to boost economic growth, job creation and global competitiveness.
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The annual meeting of the Communist Party's Central Committee, which is held behind closed doors, sets the tone for the world's second-largest economy and develops policy guidelines.
Beijing promised to stop the "disorderly expansion of capital" at a 2020 economic action conference, and over the past two years, the country's technology firms have faced an unprecedented regulatory crackdown on everything from content to data security to mergers and acquisitions. Has been the target.
As a result of the crackdown, the market value of top tech companies has been reduced by billions of dollars, several major IPOs have been delayed, and job losses are mounting.
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Significant fines were also imposed on Meituan and Alibaba, a major provider of delivery services, for abusing their dominant market positions.
Beijing softened its stance in 2021, but insisted that to prevent "barbaric growth", the government should take the lead in determining when to move capital markets.
For example, Tencent has reduced its investment stake in other Internet companies over the past year, reducing its overall influence.
China's leadership reiterated it would support the "digital economy" and enhance its "normalized regulatory" performance in a summary of the meeting published on Friday.
Sanctions are largely absent from the summary, which can be seen as laying the groundwork for specific policies in 2023, and the overall tone is one of support for industry growth and vital work in the economy.
This can be seen as a component of Beijing's new policy mix, which is pushing for growth in the face of several economic challenges such as supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 and a slump in the real estate market. Beijing has recently made it clear that it will ease restrictions on real estate developers and promote investment in real estate.
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The Big Tech message is in line with a policy document released this week that discusses boosting domestic demand for the next 13 years. This state document devoted several paragraphs to a "new type of consumption" and promised "support for platform companies and the online education sector".