The sorry saga of Didi Chuxing’s beleaguered listing in the United States has been a bitter pill for its executives to swallow. It has also been an expensive lesson for investors, not only those in the mainland’s ride-hailing giant but in other popular Chinese tech stocks as well. In their scrutiny of tech companies, and their potential predatory practices and standards of data protection, Chinese regulators have made clear the public interest takes precedence over corporate profits and investor interests.

To soothe nervous markets, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has issued an official statement saying it has an open attitude about where mainland companies can seek to raise funds and respects their choices. It also denies reports that it is pushing for so-called variable interest entities (VIEs) to drop their listings in the US. Such structures have been commonly used for foreign listing, though their underlying stock ownership rights are often questioned.

How Didi forced its way from Beijing to New York - and ended up in Hong Kong

Despite such reassurances, Beijing has made it clear that it fully intends to regulate the data-rich private sector and to offer better protection for domestic consumers, even if it means shareholder interests will take a back seat. It is especially concerned about potential leakage of sensitive data to US authorities. In this regulatory reform, Beijing has tightened its grip on big data, probed into corrupt practices in the finance industry, cracked down on the private education sector and casinos in Macau. It has also been restructuring the over-indebted real estate sector.