China crushes rumours of after-school tutoring comeback with huge fine

China appears to have sent a message to the market with a recent 67 million yuan (US$9.7 million) fine on an unregistered education firm: the government is not planning to reverse its ban on after-school tutoring any time soon. With Beijing striving to boost consumption and create jobs, there had been growing speculation that authorities might relax their restrictions on private academic tutoring – an industry that had been worth tens of billions of dollars before the 2021 ban. But that now...