If Huawei wasn’t beholden to Beijing before, it certainly is now. Beijing arrested two Canadians and successfully leveraged their detention to cut a deal for Meng’s release. sanctions against Iran.īut loyalty doesn’t go unrewarded. Concern over its ties to Chinese security services has made it the target of an American campaign against it that culminated in the arrest in Canada of CFO Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the company’s founder, over accusations that Huawei violated U.S. Huawei has of course traded on its closeness to Beijing - choosing Huawei has become synonymous with a vote of confidence in China - but been willing to endure the risks. Ma might be a Communist Party member, but Huawei’s success making Chinese technology the default 5G kit in much of the world burnishes Chinese technological credibility. Thus contrast the fate of Jack Ma with that of the founding family of Huawei, China’s 5G leader. Huawei, Xiaomi and TikTok might not actively spy on Westerners, as many Western politicians fear, but the more widespread their usage, the more Chinese standards become global default. While a key part of this strategy has been to quietly dominate international standard-setting bodies, Beijing recognizes that controlling companies developing these technologies are just as critical. China has long aimed to control the next generation of technology and has aggressively moved to set standards for a host of critical industries and sectors, from 5G and AI, to renewable energy and advanced manufacturing as part of its China Standards 2035 project. The message is clear: Toe the party line or face the might of the Chinese state.īetter yet, project Chinese power. In the ever-more repressive regime of Xi Jinping, such independent sources of power are unacceptable (see: Hong Kong). In a country with effectively no independent civil society, the tech sector has been one of the few places where power has accrued outside the ruling Communist Party. But Chinese government paeans to data privacy and limiting kids’ screen time are fig leaves to its real agenda: complete political and economic control. Yes, China is taking decisive action where the U.S.
antitrust movement, however, are far from uniform. In China, antitrust enforcement is being wielded as the sharp end of the stick of the ruling Communist party. For founders, executives and investors, political risk has never been higher.īut while on the surface both crackdowns look similar, the implications of the two countries’ antitrust strategies couldn’t be more different. Government, politicians across the global ideological divide believe, must now exert some measure of control in the name of the public good.
In both Beijing and Washington (not to mention Brussels, which has been battling tech giants for years), the consensus is increasingly clear: Big Tech has grown too powerful and too unaccountable. Meanwhile Congress is considering new legislation that would regulate tech on issues ranging from privacy to age restrictions. Leading antitrust advocates like Lina Khan, Tim Wu and Jonathan Kanter have all landed senior roles in the Biden administration. More recently, Chinese regulators have imposed new restrictions on edtech and gaming - and banned cryptocurrency altogether.Īmerica’s tech tycoons may have their freedom, but they and their businesses are also coming under government scrutiny. Meanwhile Didi’s shares tumbled 40% after they were ordered off of the country’s app stores. Tencent was then hit with numerous fines for antitrust violations since last year both firms have lost about 20% of their respective value - a combined total reaching over $300 billion. After Ma gave a speech critical of Chinese regulators last year, his company’s record IPO was suspended and he was effectively “disappeared” for months.
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