China Joint Ventures Aim to Control Tech Giants' Assets in the recent deal between China Unicom & Tencent
China is moving to take greater control of its private tech companies via joint ventures between state entities, as seen in the recent deal between China Unicom and Tencent, a report by Radio Free Asia says, adding that a unit of China Mobile is set to do a similar deal with a JD.com subsidiary, as state ‘partners’ have been assigned to “effectively take control” of some assets of major private tech firms.
A “nationalisation process” appears to have been implemented following the Communist Party’s 20th National Congress, to move against the ‘disorderly expansion of capital’ and stop private companies from expanding, the report said, citing scholars who said President Xi Jinping was shifting away from Deng Xiaoping’s market reforms toward a state-planned and controlled economy.
These moves had made many wealthy people “highly pessimistic” about their future in China and some were selling up assets and hoped to get out, the report said.