A cause for concern? China targets spiritual opium and common prosperity

Internet stocks under attack

At first glance, neither of these two phrases appear to be a major threat to parts of the global stockmarket.

If anything, they sound quite soothing. However, they have got us worried. China has been changing its outlook and tremors are being felt beyond its borders. It started in November 2020 when the regulators pulled the ANT IPO on the eve of its listing. There were 870 times more subscriptions than there were shares on offer and ANT's CEO, Jack Ma, was valued personally at around $50bn and he presumably saw this as offering himself some protection against criticising the financial regulators. The message the Chinese Government sent out was clear: We don't care how much you are worth o...