China Regulators Tell Wall Street Execs New Rules Won’t Stifle Tech

Chinese regulators are defending their crackdown on industries that have disrupted the market as they speak with Wall Street executives, saying the new rules aren’t supposed to crush tech companies.

China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Fang Xinghai has said the recent actions were meant to boost regulations for companies as well as data privacy and national security.

Fang, according to an anonymous source quoted by Bloomberg, said the actions were meant to cut down on social anxiety, including those aimed at the education and gaming industries. China’s recent wide swathes of regulatory activities have unnerved global investors. The regulations have targeted big technology companies and other aspects of the economy as President Xi Jinping pushes to create “common prosperity.”

Bloomberg writes that the new regulations could put billions at stake for Wall Street as it had previously been trying to expand to China, as the country had been opening its financial markets to investment banks and foreign money.

Fang reportedly said that the higher levels of scrutiny on Chinese companies shouldn’t be interpreted as a slight against the U.S. or a way to break off partnerships, saying that Beijing “remains committed to technology,” per Bloomberg.

China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, said in July it would be looking into regulatory oversight of companies that trade in offshore markets, and it will also reportedly be looking into more scrutiny over the corporate structure allowing Chinese tech companies to seek offshore listings, which the report calls “legally gray.”

Investors, with those developments, are worried about the possibility of a deeper financial decoupling between the two largest economies in the world.

In other news from Chinese regulators, Alibaba, Tencent and others have been instructed to stop blocking one another’s website links, with a deadline laid down – and if the firms don’t comply, then other action could be taken.

Read more: China’s Regulator Orders Tech Companies to Open ‘Walled Gardens’