By Susan Ning King & Wood Mallesons’ Commercial & Regulatory group

The reform and opening up in China has been a process of establishing and improving a modern market system. As this process deepens, “building a unified, open, orderly and competitive market” has become the goal of the market economy reform. The year 2017 is the second year of China’s 13th Five-year Plan, in which “market” and “competition” are the key points that cannot be overlooked. According to the Plan, establishment of a modern market system requires accelerating the development of a unified, open, orderly and competitive market, establishing mechanisms for ensuring fair competition, overcoming regional segmentation, breaking up industry monopolies, and removing market barriers in order to promote the free and orderly flow and equitable exchange of goods and factors of production [1]

The Plan obviously lays an unprecedented emphasis on the market’s fundamental role in resource allocation. Meanwhile, the government is taking or strengthening regulatory measures to control market disrupting risks, resorting to the law to ensure orderly operation of the market economy and to resolve externality problems of the market. Compliance issues regarding anti-corruption, employment, tax, anti-monopoly, and environmental protection are now under strict government supervision. Reinforcing the compliance system, therefore, by incorporating it into the “Now Normal” management mechanism is a path enterprises must take in their development.
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