Anti-monopoly Law (AML) revision updates make slow progress amid internal debates. M&A reviews are uncertain amid volatile bilateral relations, pending guidelines related to the abuse of IP enforcement guidelines and the auto sector create compliance uncertainties while enforcement is ongoing. Chinese experts press business community to combat unfair administrative treatment through the fair competition review scheme, and administrative and judicial appeal procedures.

The Communist Party of China (CCP) is launching an education campaign nationwide to remind its 90 million members of the Party's fundamental purpose and historic mission. China’s cybersecurity rounds out leadership by naming a third vice minister. The architect of China’s state-owned enterprise reform will now lead the powerful market and antitrust regulator.

Many of China’s standardization policy goals for 2019 have positive implications for foreign companies, including efforts to make standards setting more market driven, effective, transparent, and reflective of industry feedback. Efforts to harmonize domestic and international standards could bring benefits to foreign companies, although Chinese international standards-setting ambitions raise concerns about China using its influence to inappropriately benefit Chinese companies.

China is aggressively phasing out fossil fuels and encouraging the development of new energy vehicles in its auto sector to improve the industry’s carbon footprint. Some of the policies associated with these goals have set impractical deadlines and created market distortions, but there is room for optimism in the government’s ongoing efforts to refine its approach.

Presidents Trump and Xi will meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit near the end of June, with preparatory talks starting this week. It is unlikely that a final trade deal will be reached at the meeting. Before the presidential meeting was announced, China moved forward with a number of retaliatory measures against the United States.

You can now listen to two podcasts produced by the US-China Business Council (USCBC). The first, the China Business Minute, is a quick catchup with our China offices released every Monday. The second, the China Business Review Podcast, is the podcast companion to our digital magazine of the same name, covering a single topic in depth.

China’s key economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), on June 4 discussed export controls on rare earths with Chinese industry representatives. The meeting is the latest of several events in recent weeks suggesting China is considering options to limit rare earths exports as a response to the new US restrictions on doing business with Huawei, and possibly other Chinese technology companies.