The US chamber of commerce complained about the behavior of investigators who raided the Mercedes-Benz's Shanghai office during a price-fixing probe in August 2014. The German auto giant was later fined $56.5 million by the NDRC. What was your reaction to this?
Well, the practice of mounting a raid to gather information is carried out by our US counterparts. Acquiring first-hand information is critical during an anti-trust case. If we had not raided the offices, key information would have simply disappeared. US anti-monopoly agents use the same techniques.
The other complaint against the NDRC was that it did not allow companies being investigated to hire lawyers. What are your comments on that?
During the Qualcomm case, there was a local lawyer on the spot all the time in our discussions.
Overseas critics say you have gone to great lengths to single out foreign companies. What is your response?
Investigating overseas companies accounts for only 10 percent of our workload. But we still need to improve a number of things. Now, we will publicly announce penalty notices, but information that companies believe contains business secrets will not be made public.
There was a great deal of media attention in 2011 when the NDRC launched anti-trust investigations against China Telecom and China Unicom, both State-owned companies. How did you feel about this?
We had to investigate because we received reports with detailed information. When the anti-monopoly law came in (2008), companies did not take it seriously. Investigating SOEs was a challenging job. But in the end, the telecommunication carriers finally agreed to revamp their business operations.
You once said punishment is not the goal. So, what is the object of these investigations?
It is simply to create a level playing field for businesses to operate on. We investigated six liquid crystal display panel manufacturers, including Samsung (in January 2013). It was the first time an overseas company was punished. (The six companies, including Samsung, were fined $57.5 million for price-fixing). The case resulted in opening up the market to other companies (that made LCD screens) and helped Chinese consumers (as prices came down on those products).
Maybe you can tell us how the bureau gathers evidence?
We have two departments. Each one has four investigators and they have quite a heavy caseload. We talk to all the relevant parties in gathering information.
The NDRC's anti-monopoly division has expanded over the years. How big is it now?
In December 2009 when I joined the bureau, there were only two people handling anti-trust cases. By July 2011, the price supervision bureau was renamed the bureau of price supervision and anti-monopoly. The number of staff also increased to 46.
Does the NDRC work with overseas organizations?
We work very closely with our counterparts in the EU. We have sent three teams of investigators to work with them. We also have annual minister-level discussions with the US law enforcement agencies.
