Premier urges Chinese tech giants to support economy
Premier Li Qiang met firms such as Alibaba's cloud unit and Meituan, and urged them to do more to support the economy.  After listening to suggestions from firms that also included PDD Holdings' Pinduoduo and JD.com, Li told them authorities would seek to make regulation of platform firms more transparent and predictable.  Other companies named as attending included ByteDance's Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, and cargo service platform Huolala.  The meeting comes after authorities signalled last week that a crackdown that began in late 2020 on the technology sector had ended with fines on Ant Group and Tencent.  Regulators had repeatedly criticised and punished those companies for violations ranging from failing to protect customer privacy to monopolistic behaviour.  But Beijing's tone has softened since December, with authorities shifting to stress the need to revitalise the sprawling online platform sector, as the economy recovers at a slower-than-anticipated rate following the end of Covid curbs.  "We hope that the majority of platform enterprises will look forward with firm confidence ... continue to promote innovation and breakthroughs, better empower the real economy," Li said at Wednesday's meeting, according to state media. "Governments at all levels should endeavour to create a fair and competitive market environment, and improve policies on investment access," he said. (Reuters)