When almost 100 government antitrust investigators simultaneously marched into four of Microsoft’s offices across China late last month, they were not looking for tea and gossip.
In what Microsoft characterized internally as “surprise visits,” the agents from China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce interrogated a company vice president and other senior managers, copied contracts and financial records, and downloaded large amounts of data from the company’s computer servers, including emails and other internal communications.
The swoop on Microsoft stood out for its scale, but it was just one of dozens of similar actions across China recently that have set off alarm in boardrooms across the globe. Chinese regulators appear to be energetically expanding enforcement of the antimonopoly law, and foreign companies fear that they could become easy targets for officials from an array of competing agencies and local governments aiming to impress President Xi Jinping, the Communist Party leader who has promoted visions of patriotic resurgence and technological pre-eminence.
Read Full Article HERE
New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1kx5eAE
No comments:
Post a Comment