Tencent censors article on China’s widening tech gap with US, written by its own researcher
Chinese tech giant
censored an article by one of its own staff researchers published on Friday that discussed the country’s widening gap in the digital economy with the US and stressed the importance of the tech sector amid Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on related industries.
The article, titled “Warning of the widening gap in the digital economy between China and the US”, said that domestic Big Tech companies, which saw rapid growth from 2016 to 2018, are now slowing down and falling behind those in the US in terms of both revenue and market capitalisation.
China’s tech industry is at a low point, the article said, and the country must “tightly grasp the historical opportunity of information development and digital revolution” to avoid repeating the mistake of missing out on previous industrial revolutions.