SHANGHAIHONGKONG, Aug 17 Reuters Buy the state, sell the capitalist that39;s how global investors are trying to play China39;s latest antigraft crackdowns as they see private enterprise increasingly sidelined in Beijing39;s quest for common prosperity.

China39;s recent sweep of the medical sector came as a shock to many investors who had thought the end of Beijing39;s threeyear regulatory purge of the property and tech sectors meant there would be no more industrywide crackdowns as policymakers prioritised economic recovery.

Several government bodies in July launched a yearlong anticorruption campaign into the medical system, making clear that China39;s drive to deliver affordable housing, education and healthcare to its masses was more important.

That forced many investors to quickly draw parallels with last year39;s crusade against private tutoring and a longrunning one against tycoon Jack Ma39;s consumer finance firm Ant Group.

The one unanimous conclusion they came to was that Beijing wants a greater state presence in these sectors.

The underlying principle is that healthcare is kind of like a social service that should principally be in state hands, said Arthur Kroeber, partner and head of research at Gavekal in New York. Kroeber says the crackdowns are about defining what the state does, what the private sector does, and creating a more limited sandbox for the private sector to play in.

This links to the idea of common prosperity because it39;s the state39;s…