China‘s economic boom is hardly a secret: Four decades of economic growth that not even a pandemic could touch, the country added a new billionaire every 17 hours in 2020 – with tech entrepreneurs dominating lists of the newly-minted.
The tech sector now accounts for almost a third of China’s economy – but since the start of the year, Beijing has been waging a war on big tech and its billionaire owners that has seen some of its biggest firms lose $1.2trillion in value in just six months.
Jack Ma, once China’s richest man, disappeared for three months and had his firms forcibly restructured; DiDi – China’s Uber – was pulled from app stores; and games developer Tencent was accused of poisoning children with ‘spiritual opium.’
Which begs one big question: Why?
Jack Ma disappeared for three months and was hit with investigations that have wiped more than $100billion off the value of his empire after he criticised China’s financial sector
At least in public, the Communist party claims to be hitting back at anti-competitive practices, wealth inequality, and a soul-crushing…
