China’s cyber watchdog aims to allay internet companies’ worries

China’s cyberspace watchdog wants to build an “affectionate” relationship between internet enterprises and the government, a senior official said, the latest verbal assurance to an industry still on edge after a long and bruising regulatory crackdown.
Niu Yibing, vice minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), told a news conference the agency was supportive of the sector’s healthy development and wanted to create a “healthy, get-to-the-top, can-do entrepreneurial atmosphere”.
The CAC was among Chinese regulators who in late 2020 launched an unprecedented crackdown on the country’s technology giants. The campaign upended long-held industry practices, set new rules on how the companies should do business, and roiled markets, shaving billions of dollars in market value off the firms.