Tag Archives: State Administration for Industry and Commerce

Regulator Clarifies Microsoft Probe, Monopoly Stance

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SAIC defends anti-trust probes at rare briefing

China’s anti-monopoly regulator wants to set the record straight: Reports that Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is being probed for monopolistic behavior related to its Windows operating system and Office suite of products are incomplete. In fact, the US software giant is also being probed for monopolistic behavior related to its Internet Explorer web browser, and its media player product.

Perhaps this clarification doesn’t sound that strange to anyone outside China, but it’s actually quite unusual coming from the highly secretive State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). The regulator is one of 2 government agencies conducting a wide range of recent anti-trust probes into mostly foreign firms, raising concerns among multinationals and western governments that they are being unfairly targeted by Beijing for such probes. Read Full Post…

New Beijing Clampdowns On Foreign Tech, Drugs

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Foreign IT products come under scrutiny

Two news threads that started with relatively isolated moves are showing signs of becoming trends, with word that Beijing is taking new actions against overseas tech and drug firms. In the former case, media are reporting that China is preparing to roll out new security checks for all foreign IT products, in a move that looks aimed at the computing and telecoms sectors. The latter case has media reporting that investigators have visited the offices of Swiss drug giant Roche (Switzerland: ROG), which could auger more formal moves against the company for corrupt business practices. Read Full Post…