Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered strengthening of anti-monopoly efforts and further enforcement of fair competition policies to help the growth of smaller companies and better protect consumer rights. Speaking at a meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform, Xi emphasized the importance of creating a market environment of fair competition as China promotes a new development paradigm, high-quality development and common prosperity. Policymakers reviewed and adopted four policy documents at the meeting, including one to step up antitrust efforts, a guideline about pollution, and one for strengthening the nation’s reserves for strategic and emergency response. In enhancing the nation’s antitrust efforts, the meeting called for parallel efforts in supervising, standardizing the behavior of, and promoting the growth of businesses, with measures to make clear the rules as well as what is and is not permitted. Businesses will be encouraged to be proactive in spurring scientific and technological progress, enabling the blossoming of the market economy, making people’s lives easier and competing globally, policymakers said. They pledged to improve market access and fair competition, and prevent administrative measures to limit competition. China will promote high-level opening up, protect property rights and intellectual property rights and increase the transparency and the predictability of policies, they said. The meeting also agreed to improve oversight and supervision.
The meeting called for accelerating the fight against pollution, including water and soil pollution. A ban on importing waste will be more strictly enforced. Stricter approval standards will be set for projects that consume a lot of energy or are highly polluting. Actions that damage the ecology and environment will be subject to resolute punishment and violators will face high penalties. The meeting also underlined the need to amplify the role of the nation’s strategic reserves in stabilizing the market and increase the reserves of bulk commodities, the Global Times reports.
China's e-commerce law is also being revised to strengthen the crackdown on intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement by online vendors. Well-regulated, rather than runaway growth is expected to ensure more sustainable development of China's e-commerce market, the world's largest. Fraudulent non-infringement statements shown by merchants on e-commerce platforms, if resulting in relatively big losses, shall be subject to double compensation, according to the revision. E-commerce platform operators that fail to act against IPR infringement by sellers on their platforms could face fines of up to CNY2 million. The worst offenders could have their network operating licenses revoked. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) is seeking comments on the draft revision till October 14. China's online retail sales of physical goods grew by 14.8% year-on-year to CNY9.8 trillion in 2020, making up 24.9% of the country's total retail sales. China is the world's top market for online retail sales for the eighth year in a row. Its e-commerce law came into force on January 1, 2019.
The SAMR in April imposed a record USD2.8 billion antitrust fine on e-commerce firm Alibaba, while later that month, an anti-monopoly investigation was also launched into food delivery firm Meituan. Meituan's acquisition of bike-sharing platform Mobike without declaring the deal to regulators in advance, is also under scrutiny. Since last year, Chinese internet heavyweights, including Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent, JD and Suning.com, have been investigated, fined or face fines for alleged monopolistic behavior. Han Wenxiu, an official with the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, emphasized at a recent news conference that it was clear that recent regulations on platform-based companies are aimed at those who violate laws and regulations, rather than any private enterprise or foreign capital. The country’s antitrust measures treat all market entities equally, whether they are state-owned, private, foreign-funded or mixed-ownership enterprises, Han said.
