Chinese market regulator tells firms to focus on healthy competition overseas

Workers assemble a new energy vehicle battery module in June last year at a factory in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, that was established by battery giant CATL and carmaker SAIC Motor.

Photo: Xinhua China’s market regulator has told companies including electric vehicle maker BYD and battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) to compete healthily when expanding overseas, amid mounting accusations of unfair competition, subsidies and dumping levelled at Chinese companies in global markets.

Chinese firms should standardise their competitive behaviour and “build a healthy competition ecosystem” in their overseas expansion, the State Administration for Market Regulation said in an official readout of its first fair competition symposium of the year with corporate representatives on Thursday.

Attendees include representatives from BYD, CATL, Chery Automobile, Didi Chuxing and Meituan, as well as two state-owned companies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative – mining giant China Minmetals and the world’s biggest engineering contractor, China State Construction Engineering Corporation. “We will strengthen antitrust enforcement, improve compliance guidance and address ‘involution-style’ competition,” Meng Yang, a vice-minister of the administration, told the meeting.

He added that authorities would also deepen institutional opening up in the competition field and step up support so that companies expanding abroad could achieve higher-quality growth.

Following high-level calls to combat “involution-style” competition – referring to excessive competition that sees companies invest more but earn less, compressing margins and pushing firms to either expand overseas or cut costs to stay competitive – the market regulator has been convening regular fair-competition symposia for enterprises since last year.

Thursday’s meeting was the first to address the competitive challenges faced by Chinese companies expanding abroad.

Amid an intense price war, many companies have reported profit declines.

On Thursday, Chinese food delivery giant Meituan posted its second consecutive quarterly loss since 2022, as competition with other companies squeezed margins.

Faced with shrinking margins at home and uncertainty over tariffs on exports to the United States, more Chinese companies are accelerating overseas expansion – moving beyond exports to establish operations, supply chains and brands abroad.

But they are also facing mounting regulatory pressure oversea

原文链接: 南华早报