China’s powerful state spy agency and six other government departments have taken the unusual step of stationing investigators in the offices of Didi Chuxing to conduct a security probe of the ride-hailing group, reported the Financial Times.
The review, which sent Didi’s share price plunging when it was first announced after the company’s $4.4 billion US initial public offering earlier this month, marks the first time the secretive Ministry of State Security has publicly announced it will temporarily base staff inside a company.
The Cyberspace Administration of China, the regulator in charge of coordinating the cyber security review on Didi, said on Friday the probe would also involve the police, tax authorities, the market competition regulator, as well as industry regulators for natural resources and transport.
“The announcement of which agencies are involved is a warning shot to other companies that you don’t mess with national security but it’s also an attempt by Beijing to make the review process more transparent,” said Feng Chucheng, partner at consultancy Plenum.ai.