Finance & economics | Game changing

China’s leaders are flailing as markets drop

The government is not used to being bullied

 A man watches the closing price of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Photograph: Alamy
|Hong Kong

In recent weeks, China’s economic policymaking has been not just inadequate but a little skittish. On January 23rd draft rules on video games disappeared from the regulator’s website a month after their appearance, as if they had never existed. The regulations, which would have sprinkled games with pop-up warnings against “irrational consumption behaviour”, had triggered a steep sell-off in the shares of tech companies like Tencent.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Game changing”

From the February 3rd 2024 edition

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