Review № 5 of Chinese Antitrust News from the Experts of the BRICS Competition Centre
- Xi Jinping Holds Meeting with Private Sector Representatives
- Fiscal and Financial Policy Synergy to Support “Two Innovations”
- China’s Active Fiscal Policy to Boost Growth in 2025
- Strengthening Control over Medicines Included in Government Purchases
- Online Drug Price Comparison Service Available in Nine Provinces in China
- China Strengthens Market Mechanism Protection
- China Prepares Law to Support Private Sector
- New National Standard for Food Additives Takes Effect
- Tightening Control over Liquid Food Transportation
- Simplifying Migration of Business Archives in China
- Strengthening Measures to Attract Foreign Investment in China
- National Antimonopoly Policy Conference Held
Xi Jinping Holds Meeting with Private Sector Representatives
On February 17, Xi Jinping held a meeting with private business representatives in Beijing. He noted that the Party and state policies on the development of the private economy will remain unchanged and will be consistently implemented. Xi Jinping stressed that the private sector has broad prospects and plays a key role in promoting Chinese-style modernization. He called on entrepreneurs to strengthen patriotism, conduct legitimate and honest business, and actively promote common prosperity.
The meeting was attended by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, Tencent CEO Pony Ma, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, Yushu Technology founder Wang Xingxing, DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, and Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei.
Xi Jinping said that private companies will have the same access to the country's market as state-owned enterprises, with no barriers to participating in infrastructure projects or receiving financing from China's banking system. Xi Jinping stressed the need to promote the opening up of competitive infrastructure sectors to various market entities and make greater efforts to solve financing problems and high financing costs for private companies.
Source: People's Daily, SAMR, WeChat
Fiscal and Financial Policy Synergy to Support “Two Innovations”
China continues to actively implement the "two innovations" policy aimed at stimulating equipment upgrades and consumer exchanges. To do this, the state combines fiscal and financial instruments, providing both direct financing and credit support.
Fiscal measures include the allocation of 810 billion yuan from special long-term government bonds, which were promptly distributed among regions to launch exchange programs. The scope of subsidies has been expanded: now support covers not only traditional categories, but also electronics, production safety, agricultural equipment, and the list of subsidized household appliances has been increased from 8 to 12 items.
Financial support is strengthened through credit programs. In 2024, the People's Bank of China launched a refinancing mechanism for 500 billion yuan, of which 400 billion is intended for lending for enterprise modernization. Commercial banks are also developing specialized products. The policy prospects are associated with further coordination of fiscal and financial mechanisms. The authorities are focusing on simplifying payment procedures, monitoring the effectiveness of spending and combating violations such as the misappropriation of subsidies.
Source: People's Daily
China’s Active Fiscal Policy to Boost Growth in 2025
The Chinese government has announced a more proactive fiscal policy in 2025 to support sustainable economic growth. Key measures include increasing the budget deficit, issuing ultra-long-term bonds, increasing targeted local bonds, and streamlining budget expenditures. The initiative includes:
● Increasing the budget deficit – additional funds will be allocated to infrastructure and social projects.
● Increasing the volume of ultra-long-term government bonds to finance key initiatives.
● A program to replace hidden debt of local governments and use special bonds for social housing.
● Strengthening intergovernmental transfers to strengthen the financial position of local governments.
These measures are aimed at stimulating domestic demand, upgrading industry, and ensuring stable economic growth.
Source: People's Daily
Strengthening Control over Medicines Included in Government Purchases
At the conference on drug registration and post-market supervision held in Jinan, new measures were announced to strengthen supervision of the safety and quality of drugs selected under the national centralized procurement program. The year 2025 is designated as the “reset” stage for reforms in the field of pharmaceutical regulation. The balance between patient safety (through control of key market segments) and supporting innovative growth of the industry remains a priority. Particular attention is paid to the transparency of the supply chain - from production to online sales. The measures are aimed at strengthening trust in the public procurement system, which remains a key tool for ensuring access to medicines in China.
● Improving safety by strengthening supervision of drugs selected for the public procurement system (centralized procurement), contract manufacturing drugs and online sales. Expanding risk monitoring and supervisory inspections to prevent violations.
● Stimulating innovation in the pharmaceutical industry and implementing reforms from the document “On comprehensively deepening the regulation of drugs and medical devices for high-quality development of the industry”. Tightening control over clinical trials, raising quality standards for generics.
● Modernization of the regulatory system – creation of a unified national supervision system, training of inspectors, introduction of digital tools (“smart supervision”).
Source: People's Daily
Online Drug Price Comparison Service Available in Nine Provinces in China
China is actively implementing digital tools to improve access to medicines. According to the National Health Insurance Administration, by February 2025, the drug price comparison function in pharmacies has become available in nine provinces, including Shaanxi, Hebei and Hubei. The new system allows users to compare drug prices in different pharmacies through mobile apps such as WeChat and Alipay, choose the best deals and get navigation to the selected pharmacy. In Shaanxi, this function has already reduced the cost of insured citizens to buy medicines by 10-15%. In Hebei, a notification system has been introduced for significant price discrepancies, with pharmacies obliged to adjust inflated prices. The National Health Insurance Administration plans to expand the use of the “price comparison system” across the country, ensuring transparency and accessibility of medicines for the public.
Source: People's Daily
China Strengthens Market Mechanism Protection
In 2024, China's Procuratorate initiated more than 40,000 cases of market-violation crimes, including corruption and insider crimes in private and state-owned companies. More than 3,000 employees of state-owned enterprises were prosecuted, and more than 10,000 people were prosecuted for corruption in the private sector.
More than 200 cases of trade secret violations were initiated to protect intellectual property. The Procuratorate also handled more than 20,000 civil and 25,000 administrative cases related to companies, and initiated more than 12,000 public interest cases. In the fight against corruption in key sectors, cases were initiated against 1,200 people in the financial sector, 500 in the energy sector, and 1,400 in the construction sector. It also identified about 2,900 “frozen” cases, of which more than 80% have already been closed, unlocking assets worth over 5.7 billion yuan.
In 2025, the prosecutor's office plans to strengthen supervision of corporate rights, including monitoring illegal seizure of property, unjustified fines, and violations in cross-border inspections.
Source: People's Daily
China Prepares Law to Support Private Sector
China is completing work on a bill to support the private economy. According to a statement from the Office of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), 574 proposals from citizens and 87 recommendations from 22 deputies were received during public discussions.
The main provisions of the law are aimed at ensuring a level playing field for private companies in access to resources, markets and protection of rights, as well as strengthening the legal framework and simplifying administrative procedures, protecting against unfair inspections and ensuring regulatory transparency.
The NPC committee plans to submit the bill for a second reading during the 14th session scheduled for the near future. The law is intended to promote the sustainable development of the private sector, strengthen entrepreneurial confidence and stimulate high-quality economic growth.
Source: People's Daily
New National Standard for Food Additives Takes Effect
On February 8, 2025, the updated National Food Safety Standard “Standard on the Use of Food Additives” (GB 2760-2024) officially came into effect in China. This standard revised the scopes of application and allowable limits for certain preservatives, food flavorings and excipients, and introduced general restrictions on the combined use of certain sweeteners in the same product categories.
Source: SAMR
Tightening Control over Liquid Food Transportation
SAMR has published a draft amendment to the Food Safety Law proposing to introduce a licensing system for the transportation of bulk liquid food. According to the draft, enterprises engaged in such transportation will be required to obtain a special permit, proving that they have appropriate vehicles, containers, qualified personnel, and an effective management system. Violators who carry out transportation without a license may be fined between 50,000 and 500,000 yuan. The public consultation on the draft will last until March 18, 2025.
Source: SAMR
Simplifying Migration of Business Archives in China
The new “Regulations on the Management of Registration Archives of Business Entities” developed by the State Administration for Market Supervision and the National Archives Administration will come into force on March 20, 2025. Key changes:
● Businesses will be able to transfer registration documents when changing regions without having to re-submit applications.
● Implementation of online requests and downloading of digital copies.
● Strict measures to protect personal information.
Source: SAMR
Strengthening Measures to Attract Foreign Investment in China
At a briefing on February 20, SAMR said its priority is to attract and retain foreign investment. Key measures include simplifying the registration of foreign companies, streamlining reporting, ensuring a level playing field for all businesses, strengthening intellectual property protection and introducing transparent oversight. These steps are aimed at creating a fair, safe and predictable business environment for foreign companies.
Source: SAMR
National Antimonopoly Policy Conference Held
On February 20, the National Conference on Anti-Monopoly Work was held in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. The meeting summarized the results of anti-monopoly work in 2024, analyzed the current situation, and discussed key tasks for 2025. In 2024, 72 cases of abuse of administrative power, 22 cases of market monopoly, and 643 merger investigations were completed. In 2025, it is planned to strengthen competition supervision, modernize supervision, and create a fairer market environment.
