Employees make auto parts at a foreign-funded company in Anshan, Liaoning province. (Photo: Xinhua)

The just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference, which laid out a blueprint for next year's economic work, said that the country will prioritize strengthening antimonopoly measures and preventing disorderly capital expansion.

These are crucial to China's high-level socialist market economic system and reform. Preventing disorderly capital expansion does not mean preventing the normal development of capital. The CEWC said the government supports the innovative development of platform enterprises, but will try to bring their development in line with the law.

The conference resolved to improve the laws and regulations for identifying the monopoly of platform enterprises, the management of data collection and use, and the protection of consumer rights and interests. It will strengthen regulation, enhance regulatory capacity, resolutely combat monopoly and unfair competition, and put financial innovation within the framework of prudential regulation. That means the country still favors encouraging the innovative development of platform enterprises.

The digital economy has played an important role in China's economic and social development. Without these large platform enterprises, China's competitiveness in the digital economy will undoubtedly be affected. However, the digital economy's rapid development has greatly impacted the development of traditional industries. The combination of digital economy and finance has given rise to the question of how regulatory authorities can effectively deal with the ever-increasing new challenges.

Standardizing the development of capital and platform enterprises will not only prevent the monopoly risks created by disorderly capital expansion, but also be central to the healthy and sustainable development of capital itself.

Therefore, it is important to forward the task of preventing disorderly capital expansion in the country's antimonopoly efforts. Given that platform enterprises enjoy advantages in reducing institutional transaction costs, it is important for the country to give full play to their important role in innovation and helping improve people's livelihood.

Some technologies of platform enterprises mean they have natural monopoly characteristics. What the country is against is not their natural monopoly based on technology, nor their dominant market position obtained through technological innovation and fair competition. What the country opposes is their infringement on the legitimate rights and interests of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the people through their monopolistic market position.

The key to standardizing the development of platform enterprises is to lower the threshold of market access, reduce the cost of innovation, and encourage more technological innovation and format innovation to prevent the formation of monopoly through fair competition.