The IT giants of China began to actively induce officials to work. They found a new way of struggle that allowed them to protect against the pressure from the PRC authorities, writes Financial Times.
companies hire former employees from state structures – from antimonopoly regulators to ships. So, in Alibaba, Jack Ma crossed three high-ranking state officials, in Tencent and Bytedance – two, at Ant Group and Meituan – one by one. One of those who managed to replace Alibaba, was the former deputy director of the Antimonopoly Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce Country Tsui Shufen.
It was he who advised the authorities not to be too tough to Jack Ma’s company when an antitrust investigation was taken against her. Another example concerns the Tencent lawyer, before that, he worked as a judge in Nanshan for 14 years. From 2018 to 2020, the company won almost 94 percent of cases in this court.
Last year, China’s leadership of companies included more than 4800 people with experience in the government, two decades ago there were only 99. Officials go to IT giants, because there is a salary three to six times more than in the civil service.
In April, the State Administration of the PRC Market Control was fined Alibaba for a record in the country’s history – 18.22 billion yuan (2.78 billion dollars) for violation of antitrust laws. The investigation confirmed that Alibaba conducted a policy forcing the consumer to use its services “without the right to choose”.
Such a solution regulator The market found soft, so the company’s shares took off, and the state of Ma grew by 2.3 billion dollars.