China's crackdown on 'powerful' tech giants may be a 'terrible own goal'

For many years, Jack Ma was the poster child for China's technological rise, until he gave a controversial speech which led to the Communist Party turning him into "public enemy number one". Key points: Alibaba founder Jack Ma is $32.5b poorer after criticising the government His speech is regarded as a "tipping point" for Beijing's wider tech crackdown US-China rivalry is a factor behind the CCP's crackdown on Chinese firms listing overseas It was also the "tipping point" for Beijing's wider crackdown on tech giants, which has wiped out more than $1 trillion from the value of those stocks. Loading YouTube content China's competition regulator also announced it was probing Ma's other company, e-commerce giant Alibaba, for "suspected monopolistic practices" — which led to a record fine of 18.2 billion yuan. She also said China's tech crackdown is an attempt to fix "social problems, safety issues and social inequality".