A new Chinese law on the protection of sensitive data has made it much harder, if not impossible, for foreign investors to access information on China’s economy over the past few months. Analysts say the Chinese Communist Party is using this law to tighten control over strategic sectors to protect them from foreign competitors and adversaries.
What common cause links the following seemingly disparate news stories? Beijing’s decision on December 27 to limit foreign investment in Chinese tech start-ups; Chinese boats regularly disappearing from international radar systems in recent months; and the delisting of Didi, China’s answer to Uber, off the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in early December.
The answer lies in the Chinese Communist Party’s obsession with controlling access to what it deems sensitive economic data. Of course, the Chinese economy has long been somewhat enigmatic to foreign observers – but now it has become even more opaque.
Delisting Didi – a major source of geolocation data – from the New York Stock Exchange just six months after its NYSE debut…