China’s Startups Are Awash With Money as Beijing Shifts Focus to ‘Hard Tech’

China is luring record levels of investment into the country’s technology sector, even as it clamps down on consumer-technology firms like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc.

Unlike in previous years, when most Chinese tech funding went to internet startups in e-commerce , the bulk of the money in the past year headed into areas that hew more closely to Communist Party priorities , such as semiconductors, biotechnology and information technology.