China is cracking down on its big tech monopolies

This appeared in The Millennial Source

The recent turn suggests that big tech’s reckoning has extended to China, while heightened scrutiny and criticism of dominant tech corporations remains ongoing in the United States.

Some of China’s biggest tech corporations are facing a new level of government anti-monopolistic scrutiny, in a stark regulatory turn for the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s government has stepped up its regulation of its internet giants, such as Alibaba Group Holding Limited and Tencent Holdings Ltd., which previously benefited from a “hands off” approach, compared to other industries.

New regulations and draft rules signaling tougher regulatory scrutiny has already seen frenzied market activity, as shares in impacted companies have been sold off amid fears that China’s big tech will face punishments due to alleged monopolistic activity.

Some companies have already begun to be hit with fines and other punishments for historic acquisitions and deals that reportedly broke existing antimonopoly laws.

This new regulatory attention to big tech is the latest sign of a tightening regulatory scene in China more broadly. The toppling of financial services company Ant Group’s initial public offering (IPO) in November…