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Beijing hints that its Big Tech antitrust scrutiny could be permanent with new five-year blueprint
- New five-year rule of law blueprint calls for stronger antitrust law enforcement
- China’s antitrust law enforcement is understaffed at the moment, an official said an in interview this year
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China has made antitrust enforcement a priority in its recently published five-year plan for the development of rule of law in the country, suggesting that Beijing’s regulatory attention to the anticompetitive behaviour of Big Tech could be the new normal.
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China’s State Council and the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee have called for central and local governments to “improve and enhance anti-monopoly law enforcement” over the next five years, according to a new blueprint published on Wednesday that outlines the efforts government bodies should make from 2021 to 2025 to improve the rule of law in the country.
To “continuously improve” China’s business environment, there needs to be stronger and better enforcement of the country’s anti-monopoly and unfair competition laws, the guideline said.
It also called for more anti-monopoly legislation, along with other “important areas” including national security, technology innovation and biosecurity.
The new guideline also urged the government to continue research on legal frameworks related to the digital economy, fintech, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing.
In addition, it encouraged the government to proceed with making government data available to the public while also protecting national security, business secrets and personal privacy.
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