Obscure cyber agency becomes nemesis of China’s tech giants

A pregnant woman looks at her smartphone near a logo marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing on July 8, 2021. The CAC is now at the forefront of Beijing’s attempts to wrest control over one of its most valuable resources: data, the quintessential fuel for a global struggle with the US to dominate the technologies of the future. — AP

In its earliest iteration, the Cyberspace Administration of China used to police the country’s Internet for pornography and sensitive content online. Now, the low-profile agency holds the future of IPO-hungry tech firms in its hands.

Around since 2011, the CAC has burst into prominence over the past two weeks, doing what powerful financial regulators could not by extending its oversight to overseas initial public offerings, all with the backing of the governing State Council. Under new rules unveiled this month, any company that wants to go public abroad will need to seek CAC approval if they have more than one million users. No agency held such explicit gatekeeper powers in the past.