Xi Jinping’s campaign against private enterprise is not just about reining in a few big tech and other companies. He is trying to roll back China’s decades-long evolution toward Western-style capitalism and put the country on a different path entirely.
What does this campaign mean for Chinas massive fintech footprint, led by firms like Ant Financial and Tencent with on-again, off-again support from the Chinese government? And how does Chinas world-first central bank digital currency, the e-CNY, complement or compete with Chinas existing micropayments giants? Chinese fintech may not make a big impression on mature economies like Australias, but it is much more visible in the less-developed countries of Southeast Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
The big risk for China is that the push winds up suppressing much of the entrepreneurial energy that has powered China’s boom and years of innovation. For foreign businesses, the campaign likely means more turbulence ahead.
