The Shake-up of Chinese Fintech
The last-minute suspension of Ant Group’s IPO, the record fine for Alibaba, investigations into Meituan and Tencent: the world of Chinese fintech has been thoroughly shaken in the past half-year. Has Jack Ma stepped on the wrong toes? Is the Chinese government cracking down on powerful private companies? Or is this simply a healthy upgrade of regulation, not dissimilar to the increased scrutinizing of big tech companies in the US and EU?
Lerong Lu is a lecturer (assistant professor) in international financial law at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London. His primary research interests lie in the fields of international financial law, financial regulation, shadow banking and the law of fintech. He has published articles on Alipay, and just last month wrote a blog for the University of Oxford on Alibaba’s record fine. Before going into academia, he practiced law as an attorney in Fujian, China.