Chinese market regulator tells firms to focus on healthy competition overseas

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.

“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.