Thread by @WilliamYang120

By @LiYuan6: "Under the direction of #China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, the government’s unbridled hand is meddling in big ways and small, leaving companies second-guessing their strategies and praying to not become the next targets for crackdown.” nytimes.com/2022/01/05/tec…

"China’s biggest tech companies are regulated to limit abuses of power and to mitigate systemic risks. But Beijing’s hyper-political approach shows that it’s more about the Communist Party taking control of the industry than about leveling the playing field."

"The crackdown is killing the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit that made China a tech power in the past decade. It is destroying companies, profits and jobs that used to attract China’s best and brightest."

"The damage has been done. Some internet companies have been forced to shut down, while others are suffering from huge losses or disappointing earnings. Many publicly listed companies have seen their share prices fall by half, if not more."

"In the third quarter of last year, China’s biggest internet company, Tencent, posted its slowest revenue growth since its public listing in 2004. The e-commerce giant Alibaba’s profitability declined by 38% from a year earlier."

"The online-education and tutoring sector has nearly been eliminated after Beijing decided that the businesses created unnecessary burdens for parents and children, hindering a push to bolster the country’s low birthrates."

“The biggest problem for our industry is severe shortage of content supply,” iQiyi’s chief executive, Gong Yu, told analysts in November. He blamed, in part, censors’ slow approval. IQiyi did not respond to requests for comment."

Li Chengdong, an e-commerce consultant who invests in start-ups, said some consumer internet companies he owns are struggling with higher compliance costs. “To stay on the safe side, they have to be stricter in compliance than what the government requires,” he said.

The crackdowns are having a chilling effect on the job market. Many young Chinese are looking to the public sector for more stable positions, even though they pay less.

Olivia Fu worked as a project manager at the search engine giant Baidu in Beijing for five years before leaving last fall to join a big state-owned bank. She wrote on the social media platform Red that she went through a midlife crisis after turning 30.

“When I got home after dark and saw my daughter asleep,” she wrote, “I asked myself if it was the job I wanted.”

Now she works 9-to-5 at the bank and has more time with her family.