China stock exchange for entrepreneurs launches in Beijing

By JOE McDONALD
AP Business Writer

BEIJING (AP) — A stock exchange set up in the Chinese capital to serve entrepreneurs has opened trading with 81 companies amid a crackdown on tech giants that has wiped more than $1 trillion off their market value abroad. The Beijing Stock Exchange joins other mainland Chinese exchanges in Shanghai and the southern city of Shenzhen. They are mostly off-limits to foreign investors. The ruling Communist Party has promised more support for entrepreneurs who generate wealth and jobs. But it is tightening control over tech companies and pressing them to invest their own money in Beijing’s industry plans.