Improving the Market Environment for Fair Competition

Improving the environment for developing business entities and stimulating market competition

Business entities are the wellspring of fair competition. We must regard their robust development as an important precondition for protecting and promoting fair competition. We will take solid steps to better manage all enterprise-related licensing items, refine regulations concerning the dissolution and deregistration of enterprises, and improve the mandatory exit mechanism to spur market rejuvenation and boost the quality and vitality of enterprises. We will put a halt to all monopolistic practices and unfair competition that impede the innovative vitality of the private sector and micro, small, and medium enterprises and directly harm the interests of consumers. These efforts will see us fostering a fairer and more transparent market conducive to developing all types of business entities. We will implement detailed policies and measures to support businesses' development, ramp up special initiatives to overhaul fees levied on enterprises, and establish mechanisms for coordinated regulation and joint punishment to ensure the burden on enterprises is lightened.

Strengthening competition regulation and law enforcement to safeguard fair competition

Fair competition is an important public good provided by the government. We must regard strengthening competition regulation and law enforcement as a key lever for protecting and promoting fair competition. The fair competition review system will be implemented across the board. We will step up anti-monopoly law enforcement to prevent the abuse of administrative power that eliminates or restricts competition. We will keep working to abolish regulations and practices that hinder the development of a unified national market and fair competition. This will see us creating a domestic market that features efficient flows and is large in scale. We will investigate and deal with practices such as monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance, and infringement of trade secrets in accordance with the law. Additionally, we will improve the categorized and multi-tiered review system for concentrations of undertakings to ensure orderly market competition. Flexible regulatory measures, such as administrative admonishment and guidance, advisory guidelines, and pledges for corrective action, will be effectively leveraged to provide enterprises with space for trial and error when pursuing innovation. This will ensure we create an enabling regulatory environment for innovation.

Accelerating efforts to turn China into a manufacturer of quality and enhancing the level of market competition

High-quality development necessitates a high level of competition. Encouraging business entities to focus on securing competitive advantages through quality and innovation must serve as an important focus in our efforts to protect and promote fair competition. We will give full play to the pivotal role of quality in helping enterprises grow bigger and stronger, in forging resilient industrial ecosystems and chains, and in fostering the sustainable growth of cities. We will refine the diverse range of multi-tiered quality incentive systems to see that quality is given top priority, is pursued through independent innovation, and becomes the decisive factor in competition. We will move at speed to develop high-quality infrastructure adapted to a modern industrial system, press ahead with implementing "one-stop" high-quality infrastructure services, and boost the overall efficacy of services for all business entities. We will work with a sense of urgency to improve the governance framework for Chinese quality. The central authorities will conduct rigorous quality inspections, and work quality assessments will be advanced to elevate Chinese quality.

Systematically promoting law-based, credit-based, and smart oversight and enhancing the efficacy of competition oversight

A high level of competition requires highly effective regulation. We must regard the systematic advancement of law-based, credit-based, and smart oversight as an essential pillar of our efforts to protect and promote fair competition. We will move faster to refine supplementary laws and regulations for the Anti-monopoly Law and the foundational systems for market regulation and work out special guidelines for competition law enforcement, so as to improve further the workability and predictability of the fair competition system and its rules. We will establish a regular credit-based oversight mechanism, ensure targeted implementation of credit-based oversight in a multi-tiered and categorized fashion, and improve closed-loop management that encompasses credit commitments, credibility verification, penalties for breaches of trust, and credit restoration. We will accelerate the development of a big data platform for market regulation and fully utilize technologies such as the internet, big data, and artificial intelligence to ensure competition regulation is sound, targeted, efficient, and based on standard procedures.

Deepening institutional opening up in the field of competition and enhancing the international competitiveness of the modern economy

In the age of economic globalization, competition has taken on an international dimension. We must regard the steady expansion of institutional opening up in the field of competition as a crucial task in our efforts to protect and promote fair competition. We will channel our energies into important avenues for opening up, including Belt and Road cooperation and the BRICS cooperative mechanism, to support Chinese capital and enterprises in "going global" and engaging in international competition and to offer more high-quality public goods to the international community. We will pursue deeper multilateral and bilateral cooperation in competition regulation and law enforcement, legislative coordination, and efforts to create common positions on issues, with a view to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises engaged in international competition. We will intensify our involvement in international competition governance, actively participate in the formulation of relevant regulations, ensure high-standard competition oversight, and establish advanced platforms for dialogue. Through these efforts, we will effectively protect China's national security and development interests.

Establishing a collaborative and efficient competition regulation mechanism and generating stronger synergy for protecting and promoting fair competition

Protecting and promoting fair competition is a complex systematic project. We must regard the establishment of a collaborative and efficient competition regulation mechanism as an important safeguard for protecting and promoting fair competition. We will see that interdepartmental coordination evolves from a case-by-case approach to one that is based on the alignment of rules, so as to promote greater coordination between competition regulation and oversight for other areas and issues, including market access, individual industries, finance, and safety. To encourage businesses to shift into a proactive compliance posture, we will support and guide companies in quickly developing their compliance management systems and enhance their awareness of the need to operate in compliance with the law and consciously uphold fair market competition. Our efforts will help achieve a shift in competition governance from unilateral regulation to a diverse collective governance approach by establishing a cooperative framework that combines government regulation, enterprise self-regulation, industry self-discipline, and public oversight.

Editor: Nie Qiaoyu