Beyond security crackdown, Beijing charts state-controlled data market

BEIJING: China’s sweeping regulatory action against internet giants such as ride-hailing firm Didi Global Inc, which has sent chills through the industry, is part of a broader national project to create a domestic marketplace for the country’s vast troves of big data.

The plan, fermenting for years but rapidly gaining momentum, is designed to help support China’s economy in the coming decades and includes pilot projects for state-supervised data trading markets, policy documents show.

It also threatens to further isolate China’s internet industry globally, and ratchet up tensions with Washington.