Thread by @ruima

Your daily reminder that China's digital platform regulations aren't going away & wasn't targeted at specific individuals. @ChinaFinance40 just published a long piece by JIANG Xiaojuan, Dean of Tsinghua School of Public Administration, NPC Standing Committee member, on the topic.

6 Recommendations
1) Govt cannot possibly monitor every transaction or rely on reports of bad behavior to regulate these huge cos. Should ask platforms to setup internal systems for IP, consumer protections etc, and regulate the systems. Will also help in internationalization.

2) Diff types of platforms will need diff regulations. For example, for search type platforms focus on mkt share & throttling of competitors. For ecommerce exclusivity, subsidies & self-owned brands. Social is content and privacy. Payments focus on competition and financial risk.

3) Transparency of algorithms is important to their regulation. Transparency is a basic condition, meaning govts must know how these structures work, and might need to rely on other members of society to help. A major part of the govt's job is to make sure algorithms are ethical.

4) Maintain fair competition between platforms and balance multiple parties' interests. As platform regulation increased, some entities are now only signing contracts with SOEs, which is also anticompetitive. Also need to balance innovation along with regulation.

5) In areas with significant externalities (ie content platforms that affect social stability), there needs to be strong regulation. Same with anything that affects human health & safety, such as autonomous driving, drones etc. These require early & strong interventions.

6) Needa faster and more agile way to manage new technologies, business models & social interactions, so that regulation can keep up with new issues. Can't follow traditional system where regulations are rarely & slowly changed.

I hope this makes it pretty obvious to you what the folks with power and influence are recommending. It's pretty consistent with what's actually been happening. You can read the original for yourself here, and do yourself a favor and follow @ChinaFinance40
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/UnLLcvDlcl3h…

cc @gwbstr @mattsheehan88 @kendraschaefer @briefnorris @China_Digital if you hadn't seen (was first published in Economic Research Journal in Nov. 2021).