Scott Bade
Contributor
Scott Bade is special series editor of the TechCrunch Global Affairs Project and a regular contributor on foreign affairs. He’s a former speechwriter for Mike Bloomberg and co-author of “More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First.”
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Introducing the TechCrunch Global Affairs Project
Is Washington prepared for a geopolitical ‘tech race’?
The TechCrunch Global Affairs Project examines the increasingly intertwined relationship between the tech sector and global politics.
This is the first in a pair of articles comparing the impact of the U.S. and Chinese tech crackdowns. This piece, by Special Series Editor Scott Bade, considers the geopolitical consequences of each country’s respective approaches. Tomorrow, Nathan Picarsic and Emily de La Bruyère examine how China’s “techlash” is driven by domestic politics.
It’s not a good time to be a tech giant. In China, high-flying tech firms were once some of the few able to operate with relative independence. Tech leaders like Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Didi’s Jean Liu were mainstays of Davos and became global symbols of Chinese innovation. No longer.
After Ma gave a speech critical of Chinese regulators last year, his company’s record IPO was suspended and he was effectively “disappeared” for months. Tencent was then hit with numerous fines for antitrust violations; since last year both firms have lost about 20% of their respective value — a combined total reaching over $300 billion. Meanwhile Didi’s share …
