China intensifies Alibaba crackdown with anti-monopoly probe; Xi unrelenting on Jack Ma

Chinese regulators on Thursday launched an anti-mopoly investigation of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, stepping up official efforts to tighten control over China’s fast-growing tech industries. State ministration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said it was looking into Alibaba’s policy of "choose one of two," which requires business partners to avoid dealing with competitors. one-sentence statement gave details of possible penalties or a timeline to anunce a result.

China launches probe into Alibaba

According to Associated Press, Chinese leers h said earlier that an ecomic priority in coming year will be to step up anti-mopoly enforcement. y appear to be especially concerned about tightening control over Alibaba and or dominant internet companies that are expanding into finance, health care and or businesses. According to media reports, shares in Alibaba fell 6% in early Hong Kong tre.

Chinese state-owned media expressed support for regulators. official mouthpiece of CCP, People's Daily said, "Fair competition is core of market ecomy", while mopoly "distorts allocation of resources, harms interest of market players and consumers, and kills techlogical vancement." China’s internet sector h benefited from government’s support for invation, but industry must abide by rules and laws, it ded.

Alibaba's founder Jack Ma is China's richest entrepreneur and one of country's best-kwn global figures. Regulators earlier forced suspension of stock market debut of Ant Group, an online finance platform spun off from Alibaba. A separate anuncement later said officials of Ant h been summoned to meet with regulators.

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recent troubles of Jack Ma and Alibaba are believed to involve Chinese President Xi Jinping directly, owing to Ma's criticisms of Chinese regulations and policies. Jinping is speculated to have personally scuttled Alibaba's planned IPO which was touted to be biggest ever, in what has become an ego-battle.

Alibaba, Tencent unit fined under anti-mopoly law

Alibaba, world’s biggest e-commerce company by total sales volume, and a Tencent Holdings-backed company were fined in mid-December for failing to apply for official approval before proceeding with some acquisitions. In a statement, China's State ministration for Market Regulation said that it fined Alibaba 500,000 yuan ($76,500) for increasing its stake in department store company Intime Retail Group to 73.79% in 2017 without seeking approval.

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China Literature, an online publisher and e-book company spun off by Tencent, was fined same amount for also t seeking approval for its acquisition of New Classics Media. Separately, Shenzhen Hive Box, backed by Chinese courier firm SF Express, was censured over its acquisition of China Post Smart Logistics.

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In vember, government released proposed regulations aimed at preventing anti-competitive behaviour by internet companies such as signing exclusive contracts and using subsidies to squeeze out competitors.

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(With ncy inputs)