Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Is Jack Ma Helping China Reinforce Communist Regime's Digital
Authoritarianism?

Joyce Huang

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - China's regulators have reiterated that their probe
   into financial technology giant Ant Group, founded by the beleaguered
   billionaire Jack Ma, would not undermine the company's development and
   was not a move against private firms -- a message widely seen as a
   government effort to alleviate market concerns over the entrepreneur
   and the fate of his business empire, Alibaba Group.

   But most observers VOA spoke to remain convinced that by tightening
   regulatory controls, China is pressuring Ma into cooperating and
   sharing the troves of consumer-credit data collected by both Ant and
   Alibaba, which is also under anti-monopoly investigation.

   The observers said that, with Ma's help, China will be able to
   reinforce its digital authoritarianism -- the use of high-tech tools to
   censor, surveil, repress and manipulate domestic or even foreign
   populations.

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