China signals its regulatory crackdown will go on for years

Beijing

CHINA released a five-year blueprint calling for greater regulation of vast parts of the economy, providing a sweeping framework for the broader crackdown on key industries that has left investors reeling.

The document, jointly issued late on Wednesday by the State Council and the Communist Party's Central Committee, said that authorities would "actively" work on legislation in areas including national security, technology and monopolies. Law enforcement will be strengthened in sectors ranging from food and drugs to Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI), the document said.

"The people's growing need for a better life has put forward new and higher requirements for the construction of a government under the rule of law," it said.

"It must be based on the overall situation, take a long-term view, make up for shortcomings, forge ahead, and promote the construction of a government under the rule of law to a new level in the new era."

Investors have been seeking to make sense of a regulatory onslaught in recent weeks that has roiled markets, particularly after authorities banned profits in the US$100 billion after-school tutoring sector. Over the past year Chinese authorities have launched anti-monopoly probes into some of the nation's largest tech companies such as Alibaba Group Holding, while also mandating cybersecurity reviews for foreign listings - a measure that has created problems for Didi Global.

"We can't draw too much insight about enforcement and the potential shape of crackdowns from one document or another," said Graham Webster, who leads the DigiChina project at the Stanford University Cyber Policy Center. "Much depends on what bureaucrats and their higher-ups land on in terms of priorities month after month."

The outline released on Wednesday is an update of an earlier plan that ended in 2020. In an explanatory Q&A, officials responsible for the document highlighted the need to modernise national governance, build digital governance and increase the public's overall level of satisfaction.

The key points are:

• Actively promote legislation" in areas such as national security, technological innovation, public health, culture and education, ethnic religion, biosecurity, ecological civilisation, risk prevention, anti-monopoly, and foreign-related issues.
• Intensify law enforcement in key areas related to the vital interests of the people" including food and medicine, public health, natural resources, ecological environment, safety production, labour security, urban management, transportation, financial services, education and training.
• Ensure "healthy development of new business forms" with "good laws and good governance" related to digital economy, Internet finance, AI, Big Data, cloud computing and other related legal systems.
• Strengthen the execution of administrative decision-making: "Once a major administrative decision has been made, it shall not be arbitrarily changed or suspended without legal procedures."
• Use the Internet and Big Data in law enforcement: "Strengthen the construction of the national 'Internet + supervision' system, and realise the integration and aggregation of data from supervision platforms by the end of 2022."
• Promote openness in government affairs: "Adhere to openness as the normal, non-openness as the exception, and have the government become more open and transparent to win more understanding."

While many of the sectors named have been mentioned in previous announcements, the addition of food and drugs was new and could make investors nervous until new regulations are defined, according to Gary Dugan, chief executive officer at the Global CIO Office. "A five-year term to the crackdown at least gives definition to the time extent of the regulatory reset," he said. "However, it will be a long time for investors to fret about pending changes."

Investors have been dumping shares of sectors that receive criticism in state media, from digital gaming and e-cigarettes to property and baby formula. BLOOMBERG

READ MORE: There is nothing 'private' about private enterprises in China