China's antitrust actions are to protect the weak

In related fields, China's anti-monopoly powers are too small not too large. The existing Implementing Measures on Management of Automobile Brand Marketing, issued before the Anti-Monopoly Law, lack an adequate means to regulate and supervise monopolies.

From a more macro perspective, multinational investors in China should be aware that large-scale antitrust investigations mean the policy environment is changing, because the Chinese government is trying to seek a new balance, protecting the interests of consumers, workers and investors. Thus, the "super-national treatment" of foreign enterprises in China, which is contrary to the principle of fair play, inevitably, will gradually disappear.

In 1978, China began to open its door to the outside world. In order to attract foreign investment, local governments provided foreign investors with favorable conditions relating to taxation, land sales and even government supervision. Sometimes, they even compromised in terms of product quality and safety supervision.

In a weak supervisory environment, some multinational companies did illegal things in China they would never have dared to do in their own countries, as evidenced by the commercial bribery scandal of GlaxoSmithKline. Shanghai Husi, belonging to the U.S. OSI Group, has also been targeted after a local TV station reported on Jul. 20 that it had supplied products tainted with reprocessed expired meat to a string of fast food chains and restaurants across China.

Some overseas investors have even evaded supervision altogether. The deadly explosion at the Taiwan-invested Zhongrong Metal Products Co. Ltd in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, on Aug. 2 that killed 75 people is yet another example of what happens in sectors that pursue profit at all costs.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan, New York City on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest industrial disaster in the city’s history, and one of the deadliest in American history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers. After that, the U.S. government realized the importance of strengthening its supervision of enterprises.

Such cases serve as a lesson for the Chinese government, which must quickly establish a supervision system of being fairer, more open and more consistent. In turn, transnational enterprises need to adapt faster and more effectively to equal competition in China's domestic market, rather than suspect that the anti-trust investigations are due to xenophobia.

The writer is a political commentator for the Opinions column of China.org.cn.

This article was written in Chinese and translated by Li Jingrong.