Despite Didi’s $1.2 bn fine, China tech’s regulatory woes may not be over

China’s $1.2 billion fine on Didi Global draws a line under the ride hailing company’s regulatory woes, but the retroactive application of laws and a lack of clarity on the firm’s business revival show the worst for its tech sector may not be over.

Beijing’s launch of a cybersecurity probe just over a year ago into Didi was part of a wider and unprecedented crackdown on violations of antitrust and data rules, among other issues, that targeted some of China’s best-known corporate names such as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings.

The crackdown lopped hundreds of billions of dollars off its tech companies’ market capitalisations, prompted layoffs at several firms,