Pity the poor Chinese stock investor. Just as the international community is ganging up on China again, hurting expansion plans and export markets, their own president seems hell-bent on bringing their best-performing high-flying companies back down to earth.
A casual observer might conclude this is business as usual in China. Rapid expansion of these technology, media and telecom (TMT) companies has given them financial clout and, perhaps more importantly, much personal data on China’s citizenry. As these TMT companies are finding out, to threaten President Xi’s political power is to find yourself in the government’s crosshairs and possibly subject to a trumped-up corruption inquiry.
Unfortunately, there seems to be more to the story than the normal undermining of potential political opponents What marks President Xi’s recent corporate meddling is the thick vein of social engineering.
