Who is China in that claim? Of course the chinese central government has stake in big tech (and the economy at large), but simply claiming that "China wants this" is extremely reductionist. Tencent was privately founded and funded, and is internationally owned.
There are most certainly close ties to the central government, and they won't go against core demands of the PCR. But they are regularly picking fights and mending the borders of what is considered appropriate.
There is no official rule against having bigger group chat sizes, in fact it exists on other social media. - It might have been an inofficial directive from some ministry, it might have other reasons. From what I can spot, there's not a whole lot of users complaining about the chat restrictions anyway.
There are most certainly close ties to the central government, and they won't go against core demands of the PCR. But they are regularly picking fights and mending the borders of what is considered appropriate.
There is no official rule against having bigger group chat sizes, in fact it exists on other social media. - It might have been an inofficial directive from some ministry, it might have other reasons. From what I can spot, there's not a whole lot of users complaining about the chat restrictions anyway.