Commentary
Three Chinese tech companies on Feb. 21 lost $33 billion of value in U.S. stock trading. Alibaba Group, JD.com, and PDD Holdings are finding it harder to expand internationally, and so turned to cutthroat competition with each other for domestic markets that will likely demolish their prices and profits.
While within the last few months Beijing signaled an end to its tech crackdown, canceled three-year COVID lockdowns, and claimed at Davos to be open for business again, the cheer for investors was wary, short-lived, and followed by a hangover.
Foreign investors unwound from China after Beijing cracked down on the country’s most successful tech businesses and their leaders, most dramatically the disappearance of Jack Ma in 2020. The regime canceled his Ant Group IPO, expected to be the world’s most lucrative at over $34 billion. Didi, China’s top ride-hailing company, IPOed in the United States in 2021 for $4.4 billion. Days later, Beijing banned its app. The company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, lost about 70 percent of its value, and was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)….