Hello everyone, I’m Lao Gu.
Today, Tencent and NetEase stocks plummeted.
The reason is that the state has once again begun to increase its control over the gaming industry. The State Administration of Press and Publication has issued a new set of regulations for online games and is soliciting public opinion.
I admit that this type of legislation is very eye-catching and caters to populism, because so many people believe that games affect children’s education, and such legislation will be met with cheers.
But it is not necessarily right just because it has received some public support.
We must be clear that this kind of law is not a law in essence, it is not a law that serves to resolve disputes between game users and game companies, it is control, it is to provide legitimacy for the government to manage game companies and interfere with their operations. This kind of control is so detailed that it even manages how game companies conduct promotions, which is a strict intervention method.
Secondly, this kind of law is a social policy, it does not serve economic development, but serves the emotions of thousands of netizens, and even caters to a kind of populist control.
Furthermore, if this kind of law is introduced, there will be no beneficiaries in the market. Those parents who cannot control their children will still not be able to control them. Children can read novels if they don’t play games, and they still won’t study. And the development of online game companies will only be affected. The only beneficiary is the officials of this department. The officials of this department have increased their power of control. The entire department from top to bottom can use this legal provision to inspect various enterprises. What is behind it is something that every Chinese person understands.
He is sending a signal to this official that you can use this power to collect money. And then, in a few years, arrest a group of corrupt officials? Why bother? Why not just stop them from expanding their power?
More seriously, at the central ministry level, he is sending a signal of contraction to all Chinese business operators, that is, to increase supervision, to increase control, rather than to relax and develop the economy.
It affects not only the gaming industry, but also makes all business owners nervous. Today, the State Administration of Press and Publication issues a control law, what about other ministries tomorrow?
What is the result of allowing various ministries to implement their own control regulations?
Which ministry will think its power is too little? Where does power come from? Doesn’t power come from various control methods? Suppose now it is stipulated that you must have a permit issued by a department to go to another city, and this department has the power to control everyone in this city.
If this department makes its own management methods, it can turn the people’s right to free travel into a tool of its power, set hundreds of application conditions, and set obstacles for you at any time.
If you can apply casually, its power will be useless.
If the central ministries do this, they are serving the expansion of the power of the entire bureaucracy. The only thing we can judge is that from now on, the personnel of the State Administration of Press and Publication and its branches in various provinces and cities will become more and more comfortable, and the number of entrepreneurs who need to curry favor with them will increase.
At present, it is precisely when the central government is promoting the recovery of the Chinese economy, and even at this year’s Central Economic Work Conference, it was proposed that
We must enhance the consistency of macro policy orientation. Strengthen the coordination and cooperation of fiscal, monetary, employment, industrial, regional, technological, and environmental protection policies, incorporate non-economic policies into the assessment of macro policy orientation consistency, strengthen policy coordination, and ensure that efforts are made in the same direction to form synergy. Strengthen economic publicity and public opinion guidance, and sing the song of China’s economic optimism.
This one is talking about this situation.
On the one hand, it is said that we must focus on economic development, vigorously attract foreign investment, and encourage the development of the private economy, while this non-economic policy is contracting and engaging in control for the expansion of departmental power.
Let’s further assume that if someone destroys the gaming industry?
Then who will still believe those policies and slogans that promote economic development? At the end of 2023, we must admit that the Double Reduction policy was wrong.
The Double Reduction policy is not for the service of the economy. How can economic development lead to the destruction of an industry? On the surface, the Double Reduction policy allows institutions to continue to operate K12 after-school training, but can they survive with these control laws?
Similarly, the various superimposed controls on the gaming industry, coupled with the past game review mechanism, have already severely damaged this industry.
We must be clear that this bureaucratic system of ministries, if they consider their interests based on the expansion of power, is unrelated to industry growth and economic development. Therefore, they will not consider economic development when they introduce such control regulations.
Of course, the upgrade of the control methods for games still originates from the populist public opinion’s call for control. They demand control of this industry to escape their own educational responsibilities. Their clamor on the Internet is just a scapegoat after their own educational incompetence.
Their appeal and the relationship with the various ministries are that one wants to expand power, and the other brings the reason for expansion of power, and they are hitting the nail on the head. By analogy, the pre-made food industry can be eliminated, and the most powerful control methods in history can be used, because public opinion supports it.
Private hospitals can have a control law, because everyone hates them. Private financial institutions can be further controlled, because there are many people who scold them.
In the end, all industries are tightly controlled, where is there any economic development? Who would dare to invest? Isn’t reform and opening up about removing control? Farmers couldn’t go to the city to work before, but they can now. Private enterprises couldn’t be established before, but they can now. People used to need temporary residence permits to move in cities, but now they don’t. Land used to be a public ownership system and could not be sold, but now it can be.
This is how the Chinese economy has developed. We say every day that we want reform and opening up, but this central ministry is strengthening control. Is this reform and opening up?
More seriously, this method makes everyone ask a question, is the next step to strengthen control? Or is it to relax and develop the economy? Why are the horn and the actions completely in two directions? What should we believe?
During the economic downturn, these ministries are still actively promoting various contractionary measures and are still engaging in control. What do you want to do? Do you really not care about the economy?
The sharp decline in Tencent and NetEase stocks is what you want to see?
Don’t you care about the decline in the capital market?
At this time, shouldn’t we vigorously decontrol? Vigorously promote opening up policies? Can’t we admit that the Double Reduction policy was wrong and restore the original state? Wouldn’t this immediately bring confidence?
Let’s take a step back and say that if you must do it, can’t you do it a few years later? Are you so impatient? It can only show that these ministries have no economy in their eyes and are completely contrary to the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference.
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