China: Details emerge on tactics of NDRC

As criticism swirls around China’s antitrust policy and its National Development and Reform Commission, reports have dug deeper into what exactly happens behind closed doors when watchdogs investigate a company.

A report by Reuters gives some insight into how the NDRC conducts its competition probes.

According to those reports, business executives and lawyers describe meetings behind closed NDRC doors as “interrogations,” as the regulator and its Director General Xu Kunlin use aggressive tactics.

Lawyers involved in cases with the NDRC claim the regulator has used personal threats, forced apologies and other methods to obtain an outcome favorable for Chinese authorities.

Dozens of foreign companies, including carmakers, milk producers and technology firms, have in recent months accused the NDRC and other government organizations of unfairly targeting foreign companies in their competition cases to favor domestic rivals. Officials, including Xu, have denied the allegations of bias.

Xu Xinyu, the NDRC’s director of its second division, is one such official who has earned a reputation as one of the most strict “interrogators,” and has gained the nickname “Mr. Confession” by some legal representatives, reports say. Some lawyers claim that he once told an interpreter to translate his curses he used before a delegation.

One foreign lawyer said that clients emerge from meetings with Xu “shaken.”

Foreign lobbyists and government officials from the US and EU have recently raised concerns with China over its tactics, and some experts are concerned that foreign investment in the world’s second-largest economy will soon dwindle if these practices continue.

Full content: Reuters

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