A total of thirty firms were placed under pressure by a senior Chinese official to confess any antitrust violations. Companies including Siemens and General Electric were warned against hiring external lawyers to fight allegations from regulators, according to sources.
Antitrust lawyers in China called on a meeting as they see the need to aggressively increase their tactics to enforce a 2008 anti-monopoly legislation. The former highlighted a worsening relationship between China's regulators and foreign companies operating in the country.
Two sources said that the July 24 and 25 closed-door meetings showed copies of guilt letters from companies that admitted antitrust violations in the past. A senior official also showed in-house lawyers how to write what they referred to as "self criticisms" letters. Three sources with direct knowledge of the closed meeting disclosed that the senior official who gave blunt remarks was Xu Xinyu. The latter is a division chief at China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
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