China's parliamentary advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee has held a meeting on promoting the digital sector. Top officials, including Vice Premier Liu He and CPPCC Chairman Wang Yang, met Big Tech leaders to encourage them to play a constructive role in the national economy, sending a signal of support to the Chinese tech sector after 18 months of regulatory crackdowns. The CPPCC held a special symposium on May 17 to promote the digital economy. Liu said the government will support the healthy development of the platform economy and private firms, while supporting digital enterprises in going public on domestic and overseas capital markets. Wang said the government will strengthen confidence in the sector, taking into account industry development needs and security, and will boost the development of the digital economy. Baidu Chairman Robin Li and Qihoo 360 CEO Zhou Hongyi, along with around 100 other members of the CPPCC, attended the meeting. “We need to give full play to the advantages of our national system and large market size, strengthen key and core technology development and research, and firmly grasp the autonomy of the development of the digital economy,” CCTV reported.
The “special consultation session” was to help the “sustainable and healthy” growth of the digital economy, but no details of the plan were published. Hopes are high that Beijing will ease its control of the digital economy after an 18-month crackdown amid a slowing economy. A Politburo meeting at the end of April also revealed positive signs for internet companies. The recent signals are good for both capital markets and technology platforms, according to Zhang Yi, Chief Analyst with Guangzhou-based iiMedia Research. “It’s beneficial for the transformation and upgrade of China’s economy. Traditional industries will be on the track of digitalization with the help of 5G, as part of the digital economy,” Zhang said. Tech stocks in Hong Kong soared on the news.
A team led by Gao Yunlong, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC, conducted research via video conference and on-the-ground meetings in eastern Zhejiang province and Beijing to prepare for the meeting. Other Chinese tech executives who are also CPPCC members include NetEase Founder William Ding and Xiaomi Founder Lei Jun.
In related news, a growing number of Chinese chip design firms have adopted open-source RISC-V in their chip designs as an alternative to Intel’s proprietary X86 and Arm’s architecture, in a bid to minimize potential damage from U.S. sanctions and to save on licensing fees. Of the 20 premier members of RISC-V International, half are Chinese, including Huawei Technologies and Alibaba Cloud. “This gives Chinese companies access to a global open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) ecosystem,” said Stewart Randall, head of electronics and embedded software at consultancy Intralink. “So Chinese companies can have access to, and create, their own cores or chips based on it”, the South China Morning Post reports.
