What China’s Big Tech CEOs propose at the annual parliament meeting

The annual meetings of the Chinese parliament and its advisory body are underway in Beijing this week. Top executives from some of China's largest tech firms are among the thousands of delegates who attend and put forward their opinions. Here is a look at what the tech bosses are proposing for China's digital economy.

Pony Ma

More regulatory scrutiny is needed for the country's budding internet economy, Tencent's founder and CEO Pony Ma says in one of his proposals, according to a report from the state-backed People's Posts and Telecommunications News. As a delegate of the National People's Congress, Ma has submitted over 50 proposals during the parliament meetings over nine consecutive years, said the report.

Specifically, Ma calls for strict governance on peer-to-peer finance, bike-sharing, long-term apartment rental and online grocery group-buying, fledgling areas that have also seen businesses go bust amid cash-hemorrhaging competition.

Ma's comment comes at a time when regulators are tightening their grips on the country's tech giants. In recent months, the government has launched probes into Alibaba and other tech firms over anti-competitive practices and proposed a sweeping data law that will limit how platforms collect user information.

Lei Jun

In China's grand plan to move up the manufacturing value chain, Xiaomi, which makes smartphones and a slew of other hardware devices, has been keen to help factories upgrade.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, a delegate of the NPC, recognizes China is late to smart manufacturing, lacks home-grown innovation and is overreliant on foreign technologies, he says in his proposal. Research and development efforts should be directed to key components such as cutting-edge sensors and precision reducers for factory robots, he says.

China also lacks the talent for advancing factory innovation, Lei points out, thus government policies should support corporations in attracting foreign talent and cultivating collaboration between industries and academia.

Robin Li

As part of its artificial intelligence pivot, Baidu, China's biggest search engine service, has invested heavily in smart driving tech. Regulation is a major hurdle for autonomous driving firms like Baidu that need large volumes of data to train algorithms, and the rate at which testing permits are issued varies greatly across regions.

Robin Li, CEO of Baidu and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, urges regulators to be more innovative and pave the way for legal and at-scale commercialization of autonomous driving. A mechanism should be created for various government agencies, industry players and academia to collectively promote the commercial deployment of autonomous driving.

In addition, Li calls for more senior-friendly technologies, greater public access to government data, and better online protection for underage users in China.

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