Thread: Adding Ant to the entity list is a terrible idea.
If the bar to harsh US actions against a CN company is simply global success and innovation, USG plays into and strengthens the CN hardliner view that it US just wants to take CN down scmp.com/news/world/uni…
Note the lack of real national security justification to give this action ant real legitimacy. No sanctions violations like ZTE/Huawei, and Ant isn’t actively going after US users, so “sensitive data” on Americans is bogus. Alipay is accepted in US but mainly for CN tourists.
any impact on Ant would prob be symbolic. I’m not aware of any major
reliance on US tech/products (except dev tools for Android and iOS, which may or may not fall under entity list—any experts on this know?) IPO still goes on, it expands internationally, and US controls look weak
many (incl in CN) mistake the entity list for a sanction (SDN). Making Ant a SDN wld be huge blow, cut off global banking relats and stop even non-US banks/investors from participating in IPO, but the entity listing floated only cuts off US tech&products. IPO could still go on
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#Ant Prospectus Thread: Ant dwarfs any other #fintech company, but in past (frustratingly for researchers like me) disclosed few, sporadic details abt user #'s, assets, pymnt vol, bad loans, etc.. Prospectus is a treasure trove 1/n
2/n
Payments: 711 million active Alipay users, 1/2 of China's entire population. 80m merchants accept.
118 trillion RMB (17t USD) in payments last 12 mo, 622 billion x-border
Credit: 500m authorized borrowers, 2 tn RMB in consumer and small business loans outstanding
3/n Investments: Half a billion users with over 4.1 trillion RMB (600b USD) invested on its platform. Expanded far beyond Yu'E Bao with most of China's major asset managers vying for $$ from Ant's 500m users.
Cannot overstate how big a deal this is: proposed rules for ICT supply chain exec order dropped today from @CommerceGov would give gov't unprecedented , sweeping authority over the tech sector. This goes miles beyond Huawei 1/n (h/t @pstAsiatech) commerce.gov/news/press-rel…
@CommerceGov@pstAsiatech It would create a new #CFIUS like body at commerce for case-by-case review if one wants to import or install ICT tech/equipment/software developed in "foreign adversaries" (e.g. China, Russia). If commerce/intel community thinks it is risky, can force changes, and reject 2/n
@CommerceGov@pstAsiatech This could be the ultimate decoupling tool, giving gov authority to shut off Chinese electronics' use in US. Commerce ICT definition is "information or
data processing, storage, retrieval, or communication." Read: phones, any #IOT device, smart TV, hard drive, routers... 3/n
Quick thread on #China response to #Facebook#Libra. It is the greatest threat to Chinese fintech dominance now and they know it. CN tech firms have not yet gained many users internationally, unlike US tech. US tech has not, however, had fintech success of Alibaba/Tencent 1/n
2/n In response they are speeding up central bank digital currency plans with Ant Financial, and even raising the possibility of loosening domestic cryptocurrency regulation to ensure there is a Chinese competitor. My primer on CN crypto regulation: piie.com/blogs/china-ec…
3/n They warn, rightly, that many people might dump unstable local currencies for Libra, which could lead those currencies to fall and disrupt economies. But of course, they want to warn other countries against allowing an American firm to design a currency used internationally