Antitrust probes open and fair

The recent high-profile probes into multinational shipping, auto and high-tech companies have been accompanied by penalties on State-owned enterprises and sweeping measures to tackle administrative monopolies.

Antitrust probes are a key element of China's policy to free the market of predators and monopolies to build a level playing field for enterprises regardless of their nationalities or ownership structures. But still some people see the antitrust moves as discriminatory and coercive.

In August last year, for example, Reuters quoted two anonymous sources to claim that a Chinese antitrust official "pressured" multinationals to confess to antitrust violations and warned them against hiring "independent" lawyers to fight their cases. In April this year, the US Chamber of Commerce wrote to US Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, urging Washington to pressure Beijing to deal leniently with foreign companies in the antitrust probes. And earlier this month, the European Chamber of Commerce said it had heard "alarming" accounts from European companies that intimidation tactics are being used to force companies to accept penalties without full hearings.