Bank runs and TikTok purges – The China Project

The cataclysmic failure of SVB is rippling out to China’s tech startups. Those who chose to put their money in the U.S. bank are now struggling more than their American counterparts to pull out, hindered by stricter regulations on the Cayman Islands entities they had set up in order to get around China’s strict rules on foreign ownership.

Western governments are on a TikTok purge. The U.S. is threatening to ban the popular short video app, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, from the country, unless Chinese owners sell their stakes. Meanwhile, the U.K. will ban the use of TikTok on government devices, following similar moves made by Canada, the EU, and the U.S.

Chinese logistics company ZTO Express released excellent results for 2022, showing net profits of 6.8 billion yuan ($986.2 million), an increase of 37.6% from delivering 24.4 billion parcels. (Earlier this month, short seller Grizzly Research claimed the NYSE-listed company’s financials were faked.) Also in today’s business briefs from the Chinese media:

• Foreign companies were not especially targeted in state broadcaster CCTV’s annual “3.15” Consumer Day Gala, where it names and shames companies for harming consumers’ interests. This year, the focus was on food and medicine safety, apps that violate user data privacy, below-standard pipes in rural Jiangsu Province, and shoddy motorbike helmets.