The State Administration for Market Regulation issued a draft guideline to rein in monopoly behavior on Internet platforms such as Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan et al. The initial impulse may be to link this move with the recent squashing of the Ant Group IPO as part of a broader, coordinated effort to remind everyone who is in charge, but I am not convinced of that.

These firms are too big and powerful, but these proposed rules may be less about asserting more control over these tech oligopolies than it is about making things better for the consumers and businesses that rely on them. These massive companies have been repeatedly caught engaging in fairly egregious practices that harm consumers and small businesses.

In many ways having a small handful of huge Internet firms with concentrated power makes it easier for the Party to control them, as there are only a relatively small number of executives who need to be told what to do. Investors may not like these new rules but I bet most peopl…