SAMR curbs cutthroat competition

China will step up antitrust enforcement, rein in cutthroat competition and better develop the platform economy as part of its market regulation priorities for 2026, the country's top market regulator said after a national work conference in Beijing.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said the two-day meeting that ended on Monday set out a broad agenda aimed at improving the quality of business development, strengthening fair competition and enhancing regulatory capacity as the nation seeks to stabilize growth and foster a more orderly market environment.

The regulator said that a key focus next year will be dismantling administrative monopolies and deepening fair competition governance. China will intensify antitrust and anti-unfair competition enforcement, with particular attention paid to curbing so-called "cutthroat competition", a term increasingly used by Chinese policymakers to describe excessive, inefficient rivalry that erodes margins and innovation.

The SAMR also pledged to raise the overall quality of market players by refining market entry and exit mechanisms, improving corporate credit systems, and strengthening the protection of intellectual property and trade secrets.

By emphasizing "gatekeeper" responsibilities of large platforms, the SAMR said it would focus on governance of platform rules and accelerate the construction of a unified digital supervision framework to improve regulatory efficiency and transparency.

In addition, quality upgrading across enterprises, industrial chains and localities will be another priority. The regulator said it would push forward initiatives to develop "strong enterprises, strong industrial chains and strong counties", highlighting the role of quality standards in helping firms scale up, supporting industrial clustering and promoting sustainable urban development. It also pledged to speed up the development of high-quality infrastructure.

On safety oversight, regulators will seek to refine supervision across multiple sectors. Efforts will be enhanced to prevent drug safety risks, broaden tools for supervising industrial products and strengthen governance of the special equipment sector.

The SAMR also underscored the importance of international engagement, vowing to deepen exchanges and cooperation, enhance alignment of rules and standards, support Chinese companies expanding overseas and play a more active role in international organizations.

At the institutional level, the administration said it would strengthen grassroots regulatory capacity by improving foundational systems, bolstering technical support institutions and advancing "smart regulation" — including greater use of nonintrusive and data-driven oversight.

The move comes as the administration announced several investigations this year into multinationals over suspected violations of the antimonopoly law and regulations.

Zhong Gang, executive director of the Competition Law Research Institute at the East China University of Political Science and Law, said the regulator's vision to prioritize foreign-related antitrust enforcement is mainly to ensure economic security and stability amid rising trade protectionism globally.

"It is also a global practice to leverage legal services to better support economic development, especially when faced with an economic slowdown on a global scale," Zhong said.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn