After the Chinese Communist Party imposed a record anti-monopoly fine on Alibaba Group, the e-commerce giant acted in a way that left Western media jaws dropping: they were grateful for it. Foreign media analyzed it as an indication that mainland companies are powerless under the CCP’s iron fist of suppression.
In its open letter, Alibaba said it sincerely accepts the punishment and resolutely obeys it, and that it “will be thankful and fearful” for the punishment. “Sound government regulation and services have been key to Alibaba’s growth to date, for which we are grateful and respectful.”
Bloomberg reported on this shocking and strange phenomenon in the Western world on April 11, saying that if the U.S. government had imposed record antitrust fines on Facebook or Apple, Zuckerberg and Cook probably wouldn’t have publicly thanked them.
Even more bizarrely, Communist regulators also seemed to take Ali’s thanks in stride, with People’s Daily adding in a commentary on Saturday that the punishment was “a kind of love and care” and that “monopoly is the enemy of the market economy.” The article writes that “regulating by law and supporting development are not contradictory, but complementary and mutually reinforcing.”
But the oddities of the CCP regulators are not just that, but almost everywhere, with Bloomberg citing the example of the Beijing government completing an anti-monopoly investigation of Alibaba in just four months. You know that such landmark investigations in the U.S. or Europe are usually protracted, or years long.
Still, the astronomical $2.8 billion fine is affordable for Alibaba, which regulators say is based on 4 percent of Alibaba’s 2019 domestic revenue, but it’s also nearly three times the nearly $1 billion fine U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. paid in 2015.
Bloomberg reports that it’s unclear whether Chinese Communist Party regulation will take further action against Alibaba. For example, it is expected to sell some of its media assets, including Hong Kong’s leading English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post.
The report also said the CCP now sees Tencent as the next target for increased regulation. The Communist Party’s State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration is launching an anti-monopoly investigation into it, and several members of the central inspection team were stationed at Shenzhen-based Tencent Group last week to launch a series of so-called investigations.
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