JD.com lost 14.7 billion in this area alone, and Taobao will likely lose even more. Adding in the subsidies that Meituan had to spend defensively, in just a few months, they burned through hundreds of billions.

In contrast, the subsidies the government provides for children under three nationwide amount to only 100 billion a year, which highlights the disparity. Many departments still lack an intuitive understanding of China's vast economy. Often, everyone's goal is simply to save the cash in their hands in exchange for more dollars, which, in a sense, is just another form of alienation by capital and currency.