E-commerce giant Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴) yesterday said it would spend 100 billion yuan (US$15.5 billion) to support Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) campaign to spread the nation’s prosperity more evenly, adding to pledges by tech companies that are under pressure to pay for the Chinese Communist Party’s political initiatives.
Alibaba said it would invest in 10 projects for job creation, “care for vulnerable groups” and technology innovation. Its 100 billion yuan pledge includes 20 billion yuan for a fund to “cut income inequality” in the company’s home province of Zhejiang.
Alibaba and other Chinese tech giants, including games and social media service Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) have announced plans to invest in social welfare, technology development and other ruling party priorities in response to pressure to align with Beijing’s political and economic plans.
Photo: Reuters
Xi’s “common prosperity” campaign calls for spreading the benefits from China’s economic growth more widely and narrowing one of the world’s widest gaps between an elite with more billionaires than the US and the poor majority in the 1.4 billion population.
“We firmly believe that if society is doing well and the economy is doing well, then Alibaba will do well,” CEO Daniel Zhang (張勇) said in a statement.
Beijing has launched anti-monopoly, data security and other crackdowns on Internet industries since late last year in an effort to tighten control over companies the CCP worries might be too big and independent.
The party tolerated a widening gap between China’s rich and poor as the economy boomed over the past three decades.
Xi, who took power in 2012, has called for renewing the party’s “original mission,” which includes eradicating poverty, raising incomes, and directing investment toward strategic technology and other initiatives.
Tencent last month promised 50 billion yuan for “common prosperity” initiatives in healthcare, education and rural development. That doubled the company’s spending on corporate social responsibility.
Another e-commerce company, Pinduoduo Inc (拼多多), last month promised to spend US$1.5 billion on agriculture and other rural development projects.
Alibaba reported a profit of 45.1 billion yuan in the quarter ending in June.
Founder Jack Ma (馬雲), who stepped down as chairman in 2019, has long been one of China’s most prominent charitable donors. His foundation shipped medical supplies to Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic and has given to education, health and environmental causes.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS