Photo taken on Oct. 15, 2020 shows the headquarters of Ant Group in east China's Hangzhou city.Photo:Xinhua

The rectification of a number of domestic online platforms including Ant Group has proceeded relatively smoothly, a senior government official said at a press conference on Wednesday, saying that the government is confident of implementing the rectification well.

Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, revealed the process of rectification on the platforms during a press conference on Wednesday. 

"The rectification has been going on since 2020, and the overall progress has been relatively smooth," he said, adding that because the companies are innovative to some extent, they were not placed under government supervision in the past. 

"It takes steps for that to happen," Guo said, adding that the process of self-inspection has ended, but the rectification has not finished yet as there are still some problems that need to be dealt with. 

According to Guo, the rectification of the companies faces various challenges, including areas such as data, personal privacy protection, and individual and corporate information. But in general, the government has confidence the rectification can be achieved well. 

China has intensified the management of online companies in recent months and has beefed up efforts to rein in online irregularities. Last year, regulators fined Alibaba $2.8 billion for monopolistic practices, and the company's financial arm Ant Group had its IPO suspended in November 2020. 

The management has focused particularly on online finance. Last April, a number of Chinese financial departments held talks with representatives from a dozen online platforms that have financial businesses, including Tencent, ByteDance and JD Finance. The regulators pointed out a number of rectification requirements for them, such as the need to hold relevant licenses. 

In a previous interview, Guo stressed the government's "zero tolerance" for financial violations, saying that the country's financial departments had raised more than 1,000 questions during rectification of the 14 online platforms. He said they have received an active response from the companies for most of them. 

Global Times