Last week Meituan founder Wang Xing posted on his own social media platform an ancient poem about the demise of Qin Dynasty, which is best known for its strict control on people's freedom, draconian rules, and hefty taxation. (1/9)

A famous line in the poem made a reference to the fact that Qin Emperor was concerned about the potential threat Confusion scholars posted to his regime that he ordered burial of many of them and burning of books. (2/9)

It didn't take long before speculation surfacing online saying that Wang was using the poem to vent his anger on Chinese regulators, which is conducting an anti-trust investigation on Meituan. (3/9)

It said Wang was comparing the Chinese regulators to ruthless Qin rulers and insinnuating an anticipated fall of the regime. (4/9)

Wang eventually had to delete the post and explain in a new post that he shared the poem because the gist of the poem made him think about company strategy: it was not the scholars, who Qin Emperor saw as potential risk to the governance, (5/9)

but illiterate proletariat heros like Liu Bang and Xiang Yu who toppled the dynasty; similarly, in future, it might be some unforeseen challengers, rather than incumbent competitors who could actually threaten Meituan. (6/9)

I thought this episode is interesting because I understand as China widens its anti-trust investigation, government relations executives at tech companies are under huge pressure to perform: If you canno avoid the company's fate of being punished by regulators, (7/9)

then do your best to poke holes and dig dirts on other companies. I am not making allegations that Wang Xing is being maliciously framed/misinterpreted by rivals, but I have been hearing such theories a lot recently. It's one of those ugly scenes in China tech, (8/9)

analysts say-- do your best to throw your competitors under the bus, especially when you are the next in line. (9/9)