The conglomerate, by the way, has big investments in U.S. It turned even more bizarre earlier this month when one of the countryвЂ™s most important internet companies, Tencent, added facial recognition in an effort to limit underage players, in accord with ChinaвЂ™s video game cybercurfew laws. And in Hong Kong, once the bastion of internet freedom in the region, there are disturbing new rules to limit what is said online, which might lead to the departure of U.S. The government has also gone after a video platform run by ByteDance that it said glorified underage pregnancy, and another for vulgar content. The kindest interpretation of what it is doing is that it is trying to force fair competition to prevent monopoly power that could dwarf and even threaten the governmentвЂ™s iron grip.

No longer, as China pulls back the power to the center. In my many interviews with them and other Chinese tech leaders, I observed a maverick streak and a cheeky version of capitalism. Ma and the leaders of Didi have been celebrated for their innovative spirit and rewarded handsomely. The government put the kibosh on the initial public offering of Ant, his fintech phenom, and put him in the penalty box.ДЇor years, the energetic Mr. Xi, having seen the crackdown on Jack Ma, ChinaвЂ™s most famous and popular tech entrepreneur. But they still had to bow and scrape before Mr. Pick a side is the order of the day - an imperative cast in sharp relief as Didi execs quickly moved to assure its nearly 400 million active Chinese users that it had not handed over their information to the United States. Now itвЂ™s bit-to-byte combat over businesses and their technologies that have no border, even if they do have a country. If you were the government, were worried about the growing power of tech and had no democratic rules to adhere to, the move makes sense, in a strange way. venues, which removes one mechanism of control. ItвЂ™s clear that the Xi government is cracking down on Chinese companies that are listing their shares in U.S. And they are a reminder to international investors in Chinese companies about the regulatory curveballs that can sometimes come hurtling their way.вЂќ

Translation: It had also been cowed by an aggressive government.ДЄs The New York Times noted of all these actions: вЂњThey send a stark message to Chinese businesses about the governmentвЂ™s authority over them, even if they operate globally and their stock trades overseas. exchanges.ДЄfter meetings with government officials this year, ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, said that it was delaying its initial public offering efforts over worries stemming from data security risks. It was followed by even more moves against several other Chinese companies, all of which recently listed their shares on U.S. The moves by the Xi government against Didi represent a terrifying government action. But the twin forces of taking total control and allowing innovation to roam are colliding in much more troubling and malevolent ways in China. You certainly can make the same accusations worldwide about the abuses of personal data by tech giants, especially in the United States. While I did not buy his вЂњXi or meвЂќ argument (perhaps thereвЂ™s a third option?), he was correct. вЂњIf we adopt a stance which is that, вЂOK, weвЂ™re going to, as a country, decide that we want to clip the wings of these companies and make it so that itвЂ™s harder for them to operate in different places, where they have to be smaller,вЂ™ then there are plenty of other companies,вЂќ he said, вЂњthat are willing and able to take the place of the work that weвЂ™re doing.вЂќ Essentially painting a stark choice for internet leadership between him and ChinaвЂ™s President Xi Jinping, he added, вЂњAnd they do not share the values that we have.вЂќ He argued that tech companies like his needed to be large, if only to fend off challenges from the Asian giant and its ever-more-powerful government-controlled companies. Three years ago, in an interview with me - while attempting to dodge questions about the growing misinformation issues on Facebook - he shifted the conversation to the growing dangers from China across the digital landscape. On one topic, at least, Mark Zuckerberg was right.

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