China's cyberspace watchdog wants to build an "affectionate" relationship between internet enterprises and the government, a senior official said on Friday, the latest verbal assurance to an industry still on edge after a long and bruising regulatory crackdown.
Niu Yibing, vice minister of the Cyberspace Administration
of China (CAC), told a news conference the agency was supportive of the
sector's healthy development and while implementing rules, wanted to create a
"healthy, get-to-the-top, can-do entrepreneurial atmosphere".
The CAC was among Chinese regulators which in late 2020
launched an unprecedented crackdown on the country's technology giants. The
campaign upended long-held industry practises, set new rules on how the
companies should do business, and also roiled markets, shaving billions of
dollars in market value off the firms.
While regulators, facing a slowing economy, have not
announced new rules this year at the pace they did last year, companies have
remained cautious, with many including the likes of giants Alibaba Group and
Tencent cutting back on new investments and laying off thousands of workers.
Among some of the biggest issues that have worried investors
include new rules that came into effect in February for Chinese firms with data
on more than 1 million users to undergo a security review before listing their
shares overseas.
Sun Weimin, head of the regulator's cybersecurity
coordination bureau, said that the agency remained supportive of domestic firms
seeking overseas listings, and that the review was to ensure that there was no
data involved that could be abused by foreign governments.
There is also no final word on the saga of Chinese
ride-hailing giant Didi Global, which was the subject of a CAC-led probe that
forced the ride-hailing leader to delist from New York within a year of its
debut and made foreign investors wary about China's tech sector.
While Didi was fined $1.2 billion (roughly Rs. 9,600 crore)
last month for violating data security rules, it is not clear whether or when
its apps will be allowed to return to app stores, or whether or when it can
resume new user registrations.
Sun said that the CAC was supervising Didi's rectification
work, and that the regulator would continue to work to remove hidden security
risks and punish any behaviour that endangered national security or data
security. © Reuters
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