With market-trembling rules, China cracks down on big firms

With market-trembling rules, China cracks down on big firms

BEIJING: With market-trembling new rules and investigations, Beijing's crackdown on its most prominent companies has seeped into nearly every aspect of modern life, wiping billions of dollars from Chinese and Hong Kong-listed stocks and bamboozling investment sages.

From after-school tutoring to music streaming apps, and shopping to bike-sharing, stellar firms have been hit as Beijing tightens the leash on corporations, citing national security and antitrust concerns. Whether motivated by the control reflexes of the Communist Party or to avoid market contortions hurting the pockets and safety of the Chinese public, few expect this to be the end of the crackdown. Here are some of the sectors caught in regulators' jaws so far.

Food delivery

Top food delivery app Meituan's shares have fallen about 15 percent from Friday after regulators suddenly announced new worker protection rules this week. Employers in China's booming food delivery sector, a lunchtime lifeline for millions of office workers, must now enforce minimum salary levels and "relax delivery time limits". Meituan and rival Alibaba-owned Ele.me have come under fire in recent months after local media exposed the dangerous routes taken by drivers on tight delivery deadlines. Hong Kong-listed Meituan's stocks had already taken a beating in April when regulators launched