Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening of the National People’s Congress today that Chinese regulators will further tighten supervision of the country’s financial holding companies and its fast-growing fintechs. He also warned that the government will deepen its efforts to discourage monopolies and the use of capital as an anti-competitive tool.
Eric Schmidt, who was CEO of Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) from 2001 through 2011, warned Tuesday that the United States is “one or two years ahead of China, not five or 10” and “the Chinese are well ahead in areas like face recognition.” He was speaking at a hearing held by the Senate Armed Services Committee on emerging technologies and their impact on national security.
Cheap power generated using coal in the Xinjiang province is a magnet for bitcoin miners. That trend will only intensify now that bitcoin has hit an all-time high above $47,000 after Elon Musk revealed Tesla’s $1.5 billion investment in the crypto.
Matrix Partners China, an affiliate of Matrix Partners, the U.S. venture capital firm, has raised $1.2 billion for its sixth China fund according to an SEC filing. It is an early-stage investor in Chinese startups in tech, TMT, Internet, mobile and healthcare sectors.
The People’s Bank of China published a draft set of rules on Wednesday for anti-trust regulation of the non-bank payment providers in the fintech sector. The draft is in the public opinion domain until February 19.