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Temasek has not halted its tech investments in China amid the Chinese government's crackdown, the state investor clarified in a statement released on Wednesday, Nov. 17.

Temasek positive about investment opportunities in China

The supposed halting of some tech investments in China was previously reported by Nikkei Asia, which conducted an interview with Temasek's chief investment strategist Rohit Sipahimalani.

Sipahimalani was reported as saying that Temasek is waiting for more regulatory clarity in the way tech players are allowed to operate in China, before they "make any fresh bets on the country's digital players".

In its statement, Temasek clarified that in the interview, Sipahimalani said Temasek is adopting a more cautious stance in "the one area of internet platforms, where we will probably wait for regulatory clarify before we can deploy much more capital".

"The article misrepresented Mr Sipahimalani’s comments and the context in which he made them, which was overall positive about investment opportunities in China and consistent with comments he made," the state-owned company said.

Temasek only paused investments in China's internet platforms

Temasek also noted that while the Nikkei Asia article's headline was subsequently edited to reflect that the firm has paused its China tech investments, instead of halted, it was still "factually inaccurate".

This is because Sipahimalani’s comments referred to "internet platforms", and not "tech investments", Temasek said.

The company has "continued to deploy capital into Chinese companies in the broader tech space", Temasek added.

In the interest of transparency, Temasek further released the transcript of the interview for readers to judge Sipahimalani’s original comments, and to "understand Temasek's position on the issues raised, rather than rely on the erroneous interpretation by Nikkei".

Mothership.sg had also carried the same story highlighting Nikkei Asia's news point together with background information on the Chinese government crackdown in various industries that chilled the investment environment.

Temasek's statement can be found here.

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Top image adapted via Nikkei Asia & Paul Miller/Bloomberg/Getty Images