China launches STAR, tech stock market to boost industry

Trading starts Monday on a Chinese stock market for high-tech companies that play a key role in official development plans that are straining relations with Washington. Regulators have approved 25 companies in information technology and other fields seen by communist leaders as a path to prosperity and global influence for the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market.

The market, modeled on the U.S.-based NASDAQ, reflects the ruling Communist Party's desire to channel private capital into its development plans. It gives small Chinese investors a chance to buy into tech industries that have mostly turned to Wall Street to sell shares. The STAR Market will raise money for industries some American officials see as a competitive threat, though it has no direct link to Beijing's tariff war with President Donald Trump.