(Bloomberg) Chinese expert George Magnus disagrees with Bridgewater Associates Ray Dalio on Beijing’s technology crackdown.
In a LinkedIn post this month, Dalio said investors misunderstood China’s crackdown on sectors such as fintech, online tutoring and food delivery as “anti-capitalist.”
“The trends over the last 40 years are clearly very strong towards the development of a market economy with capital markets, and entrepreneurs and capitalists are getting rich,” said a billionaire hedge fund manager.
“As a result, they have missed what is happening in China and will probably continue to miss it,” Dario added.
Magnus thinks Dario is wrong. An economist at Oxford University’s China Center told CNBC on Wednesday that the crackdown on Beijing was all about the pursuit of political “control” by the Communist Party.
“I think Dario is wrong,” Magnus told CNBC’s “Street Sign Europe.” “Obviously he has a big business in China, so he would say that, right?”
Neither Dalio nor Bridgewater Associates were able to get immediate comments at the time of publication.
Dario has made many bullish comments about China over the past year. In October, he warned investors not to ignore China’s rise as an economic power. Meanwhile, Dario’s fund, Bridgewater Associates, has recently increased its investment in the Chinese stock market.
And even though China is scrutinizing its large tech sector, Dario is doubling down. “Don’t mistake these wiggles for trends, and don’t expect this Chinese state capitalism to be exactly the same as Western capitalism,” he said recently.
“Despite these being the essence of the dynamism of the Chinese economy, the Chinese Communist Party is basically being driven to dominate these tech companies and entrepreneurs,” Magnus said.
Entrepreneurs such as Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma and Tencent’s chief Pony Ma “are to support the party’s goals,” he added.
Last year, a comment from charismatic billionaire Ma, who criticized regulators, forced Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group to abolish its planned initial public offering. A move has begun to increase surveillance in China’s technology industry.
Speculation increased over the whereabouts of the horse after he disappeared from the public eye for months. According to Associates, entrepreneurs lie low. In June, Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai said CNBC Ma was “on track” and “taken painting as a hobby.”
Recently, Beijing has extended its crackdown to several other companies. Didi, a ride-haling company released in the United States earlier this year, is 38% below its offer price following a cybersecurity investigation by Chinese regulators.
Authorities are also targeting the tutoring services, food delivery companies and video game industry.
