Protecting consumers

The Ministry of Commerce must have thoroughly considered the far-reaching implications of its decision to reject the US$2.4-billion acquisition of Huiyuan Juice, China's leading juice maker, by Coca-Cola.

At a moment when the country's absorption of foreign direct investment is declining in lockstep with the global economy and many domestic companies are eagerly expanding abroad, it cannot have been an easy decision.

Chinese regulators, whose first and foremost priority is the interests of consumers, have rejected five of the 29 such cases it has investigated under the Anti-Monopoly Law since last August.