Source: South China Morning Post    Published: 2021-07-16

A task force of seven ministries,including the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC),the public security ministry andthe national security ministry,entered Didi Chuxing’s offices yesterday to conduct the country’s first cybersecurity review.

The CAC said in a statement that it teamed up with the Ministryof Public Security and the Ministryof National Security to start an on-site cybersecurity inspection of Didi, two weeks after thecountry’s internet regulator announced a review into the ridehailinggiant and stopped it from registering new users in response to Didi’s decision to make an initial public offering (IPO) in NewYork without full consent from Beijing.

The other departments involvedin the on-site inspection include the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR),the Ministry of Transport, and the State Administration of Taxation. Among them, the natural resources ministry, the transport ministry and taxation bureau are not among the 12 government agencies directly backing the cybersecurity review office.

It is not known how long the investigation will take. Didi did not immediately respond to a request for comment yesterday.

Wang Sixin, a professor from the Communication University of China, said as this was the first time the cybersecurity review office,which was created last year within CAC, had conducted a review,many questions remained unanswered.“There are huge unknownsabout how [Beijing] will deal withDidi,” Wang said. He added that the line-up of ministries in the probe had revealed some information.For instance, the involvement of SAMR meant there might be antitrust probes into Didi while the presence of the natural resources ministry showed Beijing’sconcern about mapping information security.

Liu Dian, an associate researcher at the Chongyang Institutefor Financial Studies of Renmin University, said the line up of seven ministries showed the scope of the investigation would be “comprehensive”.“The government really attaches great importance to the Didi case,” Liu said. Didi’s head office in Beijing looked normal yesterday afternoon with no sign of police or security agency vehicles. The Post spoke to several Didi employees outside the building, most of whom said their work had not been interrupted.The involvement of seven ministries in a joint probe into a Chinese business entity is unprecedented.In the antitrust probe of Alibaba Group Holding,owner of the South China Morning Post, initiated last Christmas Eve, a group of antitrust regulators entered the e-commerce giant’s headquarters to conduct interviews and collect evidence for justone day.

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