What do Bitcoin [BTC] and China have in common?

Perhaps nothing.

Perhaps it’s just coincidental that at the same time bitcoin prices soared earlier this week, Chinese authorities continued their regulatory crackdown on a range of industries.

From Forbes:

‘China’s internet billionaires suffered the biggest losses on the list of the world’s richest people on Monday, as spooked investors continued to dump stocks targeted in Beijing’s widening regulatory crackdown.

‘Meituan founder Wang Xing, NetEase Chief Executive Williang Ding, Pinduoduo founder Colin Zheng Huang and Tencent Chairman Pony Ma racked up a combined $13.6 billion plunge in their wealth in just one day, according to the World’s Real-Time Billionaires List. The hits to their fortunes come as a sell-off in Chinese education and technology stocks continued to spread to other sectors, with investors pondering which companies could fall under Beijing’s scrutiny next.

‘“[The crackdown] is a continuation of previous policies of anti-monopoly and stop the disorderly expansion of capital,” says Shen Meng, director of Beijing-based boutique investment bank Chanson and Co. “China also wants to reduce discontent among different factions of the society, and alleviate overall pressure.”’

Why would China want to crack down on their tech companies? Don’t you need scale and network effects (a fancy word for a monopoly) to compete at this level?

Yes, you do.

But do you think China’s Dictator Xi Jinping isn’t looking at the dominance of the US tech companies and saying, ‘That’s not going to happen here!’?