The proximate cause of Didi’s crash was an announcement by China’s Cyberspace Administration that it suspected Didi of illegally collecting and using personal information. Pending an investigation, it had ordered Didi to stop registering new users and removed Didi’s app from China’s app stores. The emerging cold war between Beijing and Washington is less about traditional arms than about data – gathering, aggregating, analyzing and making maximum use of it to outmaneuver the other side. The official rationale: ensuring Chinese customers are safe from cybercrime and leaks of personal information. Yet Chinese companies now constitute the largest share of major emerging market indexes guiding where American savings move around the globe.

Source: The Guardian July 10, 2021 09:56 UTC