According to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Pony Ma, co-founder of Tencent Holdings, is once again China’s richest person, now with a net worth of more than A$ 65 billion ( US$ 44.3 billion ), placing him 27th globally.
Close behind him in the positions are bottled water billionaire Zhong Shanshan, and Zhang Yiming, the principal co-founder of technology giant ByteDance, which owns TikTok.
Only a few years back, the ruling Communist Party of China began a crackdown on businessmen and other business leaders. Some were officially jailed. Some just vanished from view of the general public.
Ma’s resumption might seem to indicate a more liberal industry environment. But as we watch China’s personal business grow, we should consider it follows China’s special handbook.
Ascent of Google
Ma’s success mainly comes from his interest in Tencent, which he co-founded in 1998 with its offices in Shenzhen. As China’s business grew, Tencent became a world-leading internet and technology business.
Tencent is well-known for connecting more than a billion people through its QQ and WeChat instant messaging services, which immediately rose to become two of China’s most widely used instant messaging services.
Tencent is also the largest video game vendor in China, with popular sports such as” Honour of Kings” and” League of Legends”.
Next month, Tencent released” Black Myth: Wukong”, China’s first-ever “AAA” video match. AAA is a nationally recognized gaming business buzzword that refers to key, high-budget, independent productions.
Within three days of its launch, the highly anticipated game had over 10 million profits across platforms, making it one of China’s most popular games ever.
The sport itself features several Chinese landscapes in addition to a 16th-century Chinese fiction called” Journey to the West.” Its reputation aligns with Beijing’s continued efforts to boost China’s global historical appeal.
The game was greatly praised by China’s state-owned media outlet, Xinhua, for “telling Chinese reports with world-class value” and for providing a new way for international players to understand Taiwanese culture.
This formal evaluation has a lot of meaning. In previous times, Tencent has had a hard time coping with Beijing’s strict game rules.
In August 2021, China’s movie game regulator announced plans to reduce online players under the age of 18 to only one minute of play on Sundays, weekends and holidays. This was a significant blow to China’s entertainment industry, including Tencent.
Beijing passed additional policy in December 2023 to increase the cap on the amount of cash and time that could be spent on video games. The announcement resulted in a 12.4 % drop in Tencent’s share price. However, the business also vowed to strictly follow any fresh rules.
A warning stories
In China, complying with state requirements is essential. Another Chinese tech businessman, Jack Ma, faced the effects of formally challenging them.
In 2020, Jack Ma was poised to launch what was set to be the world’s largest initial public offering ( IPO ), raising about A$ 50 billion ( US$ 34 billion ) for his financial technology giant, Ant Group.
However, regulators halted the Ant Group IPO after he harshly criticized Chinese economic regulators for antiquated regulations and excessive intervention after giving a speech in Shanghai.
China eventually suspended the Investor in late 2020 citing concerns that Ant Group’s e-finance items promoted uncontrolled loans and expense.
In the years that followed, Ant and its affiliates Alibaba were fined billions in charges for alleged financial regulations violations.
This stage ushered in a much greater Chinese governmental framework. The software tycoons had to adjust to a new reality.
In 2021, Pony Ma officially stressed the importance of strongly restricting internet firms, including his own. Additionally, he actively offered to meet with antitrust regulators.
Tencent’s fiscal firm was forced to be restructured, and the federal demanded a divestment of its stakes in various sectors.
Party remains the greatest power
China’s economy is a” socialist market economy“. That is, China’s state thinks of the industry as a useful tool to attain communist goals.
The government has long been cautious about the emerging market power of oligarchs as a potential threat to the party’s authorities, but that does n’t mean the private sector does n’t play a significant role.
Beijing has pledged to unleash market forces, promote private business growth, and modernize its financial institutions over the course of its previous decades of reform and entry. The state must keep the supreme authority to control and mobilize market resources as a prerequisite.
Nevertheless, its economy has been firmly weak post-Covid. The private sector’s crackdown has undermined many owners and entrepreneurs, which is essential to restoring China’s economic strength.
Last month, Beijing introduced a 31-point action strategy in reply, aiming to make the secret business “bigger, better and stronger”. Days after its launch, Pony Ma officially praised the president’s move as “encouraging and inspiring“.
Had spring presently been coming for China’s personal business? Maybe, but only on China’s words.
Remember that the state has always had a means of achieving its personal goals with market development. This will never be a tale of the condition reversing its grip on the market.
Wenting He is PhD candidate of foreign relations, Australian National University
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