Chinese Tech Giants Tencent, Baidu, Huawei, Others Part Of Country's National Blockchain Committee

Some of the biggest technology companies in China have a representation in the country's newly-created national blockchain committee, a list of members published by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has revealed.

What Happened

Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY, Baidu Inc. BIDU, e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s BABA subsidiary Ant Financial, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., JD.com Inc. JD -- all have some of their executives on the 71-member committee, according to a translation by The Block.

Other members on the committee, called "National Blockchain and Distributed Accounting Technology Standardization Technical Committee," include representatives from various government agencies and educational institutes.

The Chinese government hasn't shared any further details on the purpose of the committee.

Why It Matters

President Xi Jinping had called for more research and innovation in blockchain technology in October last year.

"Greater effort should be made to strengthen basic research and boost innovation capacity to help China gain an edge in the theoretical, innovative, and industrial aspects of this emerging field," Xi said at the time.

China has been leading in terms of the number of blockchain patents filed as well. The country saw three times more blockchain patents than its nearest competitor, the United States, according to the research by Tokyo-based research firm Astamuse in November.

Price Action

Baidu closed 2.6% higher at $100.92 on Tuesday and dropped 0.4% lower in the after-hours session. Alibaba closed 2.6% up at $204.78 and was mostly unchanged in the after-hours.

JD added 2.5% in the regular session at $43.86 and another 1.9% in after-hours at $44.70. Tencent closed 3.3% higher at $51.45.

The apex cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) traded 0.2% higher at $6,854.29 at press time on Wednesday.