China's tech law gets 'rational,' says the top executive of JD.com

June 20, 2022: -Regulation on China’s technology sector is not loosening; it becomes more “rational,” a top executive at e-commerce business JD.com told CNBC.

Over the prior 16 months, Beijing has enacted sweeping regulations on the internet industry, donating to billions of dollars of value being wiped off China’s internet sector.

But a revival of Covid in China, accompanied by lockdowns in important parts of the country, has hurt economic growth. The government is looking for ways to grow the economy, and there are signs the crackdown on technology companies may be easing.

On Friday, Xin Lijun, CEO of J.D. Retail, informed CNBC in an interview aired that regulation is not necessarily comfortable, but it has become more stable.

“Each country follows the exact way when developing a certain area, China and U.S. included, which is to promote innovation and provide a loose environment at the early stages, and then conduct moderate regulation when the sector develops to a certain level,” Xin said.

“The Chinese tech sector or internet sector is going through this process. Thus I wouldn’t say regulation loosening. I’d say the law is conducted more rationally.”

China’s tech crackdown came thick and fast in areas from antitrust to data protection and seemed to have taken investors off guard with the speed at which it was enacted. But additional newly, regulatory action appears to be less intense.

“The current regulation is slow going onto a normal track. Normally, there might be some unforeseen negative impacts when trying to impose a law on a new sector. But as the regulation becomes more stable, the overall story and the market intention be more stable.”

JD.com has mostly escaped effective regulatory action, unlike its rival Alibaba, which was hit by a $2.8 billion antitrust fine in the previous year.

In the previous month, China’s Vice-Premier Liu He promised support for the technology sector and strategies for internet businesses to proceed public, in a sign of potentially more supportive policies.