After months of intense crackdown on businesses and Internet companies in China, the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party suddenly dropped hints that after all it will let private businesses and technology companies survive. The Politburo, which is controlled by Xi Jin Ping and has unlimited power, had a series of emergency meetings during the week ending on April 29, the last day before the May 1 Labor Day. An announcement was swiftly made after the conclusion of the Politburo meetings. It says that the Chinese government would allow the “healthy development” of the Internet platform economy.
Further, China's leaders scheduled a symposium with the country’s Big Tech firms, raising hopes that Beijing will finally let up its relentless clampdown on the tech sector and give platform companies larger roles to help prop up the ailing economy. According to sources in China, one topic that will be discussed at the symposium is that the CCP will take up to 1% of equity stake in large Internet companies so as to have say in their management. So what changed Xi's mind to let up crackdown on technology companies?
Xi's zero-Covid policy requires repeated tests of local residents and removes those who test positive of the Covid-19 virus from their homes to hastily built temporary hospitals for isolation. The zero-Covid policy has not proven to be effective in containing the variants of the Covid-19 virus like Delta and Omicron.
In pursuit of his zero-Covid policy, Xi Jin Ping has ordered the lockdown of large cities including Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, even Shanghai, which has a population of 25 million and is China's leading economic engine. Although common sense says not to burn your house to rid it of the mouse, the zero-Covid policy does exactly that - It has put a stop to nearly all economic activities in the lockdown areas. 
The lockdown has interrupted China's economy in a big way. A recent median forecast among nine financial firms tracked by CNBC predicted 4.5% China GDP growth for 2022, which is way short of the 5.5% GDP target announced by Premier Li Ke Qiang. In the major economic center Shanghai, business activities have come to a halt since the harsh zero-Covid measures, which have affected patients with long term ailments and caused shortages of supplies of food and vegetables.
Using 'The party leadership rules everything', Xi as general secretary of the CCP has grabbed all executive power onto himself, pushing aside nearly all senior and mid-level government officials. These officials would rather do nothing than risking their jobs by fulfilling their duties. As Xi insists on continuing the zero-Covid policy, these officials have obediently carried out the lockdowns. Yet as the disastrous economic results are rolling in, Xi simply ordered businesses and technology companies back to producing the numbers he wants to see.
The announcement following the Politburo meeting on Friday is almost an admission that Xi's ruthless attacks on private businesses and tech companies have wounded them and harmed the economy. Perhaps Xi and Politburo have finally realized that CCP itself does not produce anything that can be used by people or bought by the market. They have to rely on businesses to expand employment, generate economic growth and pay bills. 
The symposium has been set for after the Labor Day holiday, which lasts from Saturday to Wednesday this year, to assure business executives that regulators will no longer demand rectifications or impose surprise fines, two people, who declined to be named as the briefings were private, told the South China Morning Post.
The country’s major Big Tech players, including e-commerce platform Alibaba Group Holding, social media and video gaming giant Tencent Holdings, online delivery and on-demand service platform Meituan, and TikTok owner ByteDance, are all invited.
A joint regulatory meeting is also set to take place as soon as this weekend to put all regulators on the same page regarding Beijing’s new decision to ease aggressive actions, one of the sources said.
The key message to tech companies is that the state wants them to grow and play a role in Beijing’s efforts to bolster an economy battered by zero-Covid controls, such as distributing consumption vouchers, according to one source.
Some local governments have already started to give away coupons to citizens through internet platforms. Shenzhen, for instance, is giving away 500 million yuan (US$75 million) worth of coupons to residents through Meituan and e-commerce service provider JD.com. Meanwhile, online ordering and delivery services provided by tech platforms have proved essential for many residents under Covid lockdowns.
The move is the strongest policy signal to come from the Politburo, the supreme 25-member decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party, regarding Beijing’s forceful campaign to curb the “irrational expansion of capital” since the 2nd half of 2020.
Regulatory hostility in the last 18 months or so has been one of the biggest investment risks in China’s tech stocks, wiping out trillions of dollars in market value across New York and Hong Kong, while deterring venture funding for Chinese tech start-ups. Mr. Sun Da Wu, an agricultural business man and billionaire, was arrested and sentenced to 18 years in prison along with his sons. His company, Da Wu Group, was seized by the Chinese government, appraised at an arbitrary low value and sold to a Beijing company.
The Politburo statement on Friday was issued in the early afternoon, breaking with Beijing’s tradition of releasing statements outside market hours. Investors in Hong Kong and Shanghai rushed to buy shares when the afternoon trading session opened, leading to a surge in Chinese tech stocks. The statement largely endorsed a State Council meeting on March 16, when Vice-Premier Liu He demanded “transparent and predictable” regulation over China’s tech industry.
Zelensky said in his address to the U.N. 'Are you ready to shut down the UN? Do you think the time of international law has passed? If your answers ar...more
In today's China, the Chinese Communist Party has a tight grip on online discussions of many sensitive subjects. The topic of the Chained Woman found ...more
According to Ukraine Military, as many as 8 Russian aircraft were shot down in a day, including a Su-30 2-seater twin engine jet fighter which was shot down in Nikolaevkskaya area.
Two pilots were captured, who spoke their names and asked their mothers to pick them up in Kyiv, Ukraine. They were told to
ask Putin to pay for their mothers' travel to Kyiv and their trip back together to Russia.
Sukhoi Su-30 is a 2-seater, twin-engine jet fighter. It was first tested in 1989 and officially deployed in 1996.
Separately, a Russian helicopter was shot down over a reservoir near Kyiv in Ukraine. In the photo below, a helicopter was hit by a missile moments before it entered the reservoir. It was believed to be shot down by a ground-to-air missile fired by a Ukrainian soldier. 
It was one of several Russian helicopters that were seen flying low over the reservoir.
A Su-34 fighter bomber was shot down. It was a 2-seater, twin-engine aircraft which entered service in 2014. 3 Su-25 single seat twin-engine jet fighters were also shot down, making it the most deadly day for the Russian Air Force.
Dmytro Ponomarenko, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, wrote a tweet, thanking Korean actress Lee Young-Ae for her generous donation t...more
Senator Marco Rubio proposed an amendment to the Foreign Corruption Prevention Act (FCPA) on Thursday Feb. 3, with the goal of stopping big American businesses from colluding with Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
He wrote: 'It is well past time for our laws to counter corrupt business practices that entangle U.S. corporations with the Chinese government.' Senator Rubio is addressing an important issue that has been long ignored by many. It deserves to be looked at by the both the government and business community.
Chinese companies that have their shares listed on a stock exchage in the U.S., like China's leading search enhine Baidu (bidu), should also be held to the same standard. Such Chinese companies benefit from using American investors' funds in conducting their business in and outside of China. They enthusiastically obey, support and executie censorship orders from the CCP, blocking any objective news reports which are considered not favorable or helpful to the CCP.
By blocking international news, removing facts and hiding truths, they collude with the CCP in deceiving the Chinese people, making things hard or creating obstacles for local businesses and international companies that conduct business in China. 
The CCP forces any company in China that has more than 50 employees to set up a party branch. Major international companies with 1000 local employees will be required to set up multiple CCP party branches among employees. These party branches meet regularly and recruit new members. Baidu is a large technology company and it is believed to have multiple CCP branches stationed inside the company.
In order to execute CCP orders of censorship or silence expressions of dissent by any celebrities, scholars, officials or any regular users of social media, the CCP censors would go first to Baidu to search for such expressions using 'harmful words' as keywords.
Only articles, videos or blogs that are approved by or pass the censorship of the CCP are allowed to be searchable on Baidu. Baidu has become a technology tool used by the CCP to monitor its people and businesses that operate in China.
The CCP, like Xi Jin Ping, are run by paranoid people who are alarmed by any words, expressions or images that are suspected of mocking, disapproving or criticizing the oppressive Communist rule.
In June 2021, before the CCP's celebration of its 100 anniversary, Beijing Market Supervisory Bureau instructed bureaus in local cities to use Baidu and other search engines to search for, find and gather evidence of 'violations' found on any company's official web site. Once a web site is found using any words that were considered forbidden, an unusually large financial penalty is issued to the company.
An international bedding product company was fined over $120,000. A multi-national conglomerate making industrial adhesive products was fined close to a million US dollars. A Chinese social media company whose shares are listed in Hong Kong has faced 44 fines totaling 14.3 million yuan ($2.24 million) in the period from January to November 2021.
By using money from Amercan and international investors on a U.S. stock exchange while colluding with the CCP in deceiving the Chinese people, these large public Chinese technology companies should be held accountable for the harm they have caused.
They must not be allowed to spread CCP's deceptions and falsehood, they must not be allowed to create blind believers in the CCP. If left unchecked, these large Chinese companies with access to international investors' funds, will only cause more harm over the long run.
©2025 16J.com. All rights reserved.
