Chinese media defends wave of industry regulation, says reforms in West ‘stuck in silence’

A Chinese national flag flutters outside the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) building on the Financial Street in Beijing, China July 9, 2021. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

SHANGHAI — China’s regulatory crackdown is being waged to build a prosperous market economy and criticism from the United States and the West that it is taking “a backward step” are smears, state-backed tabloid Global Times said on Tuesday.

“For the moment, reforms in the West are stuck in silence while public opinion there is busy pointing fingers at China, while China is the true doer who is slow in speech yet quick in action,” the editorial reads.

The Global Times is published by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist party.

The piece described the regulatory wave as a means to fight against monopolies, safeguard national security, and protect the interests of workers.

“Such economic governance is not new to the world, but Western media outlets have kept pinning political labels on China’s relevant practices, cursing China to fail,” the op-ed read.

“China has been at the forefront of developing countries, and we are determined to take a modernization path that is different from that of capitalism,” the unnamed writer added.

China has imposed a flurry of regulations and penalties over the past year, affecting sectors ranging from gaming to education to e-commerce and rattling domestic and foreign investors.

The wave began in earnest last autumn, when authorities abruptly halted the planned $37 billion IPO of Alibaba-affiliated Ant Group.

Since then, authorities also placed a record $2.5 billion fine on Alibaba, barred curriculum-based tutoring by for-profit education companies, and probed ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing over data privacy concerns.

More recently, on Monday the government announced it would restrict minors’ access to online gaming sites to one hour each day on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays..