China’s Anti-Monopoly Enforcement Surges in 2025
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) released its 2025 Anti-Monopoly Enforcement Annual Report on June 5, revealing a significant escalation in enforcement actions. The report shows that regulators concluded 22 market monopoly cases and imposed total fines and confiscations of 653 million yuan (approximately $90 million USD), while reviewing a record 706 business merger cases.
A Surge in Enforcement Activity
The 2025 report marks a notable intensification of China’s competition policy enforcement. According to CCTV News, the number of concluded monopoly cases doubled from 11 in 2024 to 22 in 2025, while total fines surged by 449% from 119 million yuan to 653 million yuan. The SAMR also reviewed and concluded 706 business concentration (merger) cases, representing a 9.8% year-on-year increase from 643 cases in 2024.
This escalation reflects a broader trend of tightening regulatory oversight across China’s economy. The 2024 report had already signaled growing enforcement momentum, but the 2025 figures demonstrate an accelerated pace. The jump in fines — from 119 million to 653 million yuan — suggests regulators are pursuing larger, more significant cases with heftier penalties, targeting both monopolistic agreements and abuses of dominant market positions.
New Focus on Policy Review
A key development in the 2025 report is the introduction of proactive policy measure reviews. Market regulators at all levels examined nearly 60,000 policy measures throughout the year to identify and eliminate local protectionism and market fragmentation. This marks a strategic shift from reactive case-by-case enforcement toward systemic review of government policies that may create barriers to competition.
As the SAMR official announcement stated, the agency issued the “Implementation Measures for the Fair Competition Review Regulations” to strengthen fair competition review at the source, reinforcing China’s commitment to building a unified national market. In contrast, the 2024 report had focused on individual abuse-of-power cases — 72 such cases were filed that year — whereas the 2025 approach emphasizes reviewing the underlying policies themselves, representing a more structural approach to tackling market distortions.
Institutional Development and Public Outreach
The National Anti-Monopoly Bureau launched its first national anti-monopoly publicity and service platform in 2025, establishing official accounts on WeChat, Weibo, and Douyin — China’s leading social media platforms. The bureau also organized China Fair Competition Policy Publicity Week and the 11th China Fair Competition Policy International Forum, signaling efforts to build public awareness and international cooperation around competition policy.
According to China News Service, the annual report covers multiple sections including special features, annual work overview, regulatory enforcement achievements, legal construction, fair competition policy implementation, competition advocacy, and international exchanges and cooperation.
Broader Economic Context
The intensified enforcement comes amid China’s broader push to build a “unified national market” — a concept promoted by the Communist Party to eliminate local protectionism and market fragmentation. This aligns with ongoing efforts to address economic challenges including slowing GDP growth, deflationary pressures, and trade tensions with the US and EU.
China’s anti-monopoly framework, established with the Anti-Monopoly Law in 2008 and significantly revised in 2022, has progressively strengthened under the SAMR. The formal establishment of the National Anti-Monopoly Bureau as a vice-ministerial-level agency in 2021 signaled the central government’s commitment to competition policy as a tool for economic governance. The 2025 report also aligns with broader anti-”involution” (反内卷) efforts aimed at reducing destructive competition and encouraging healthier market dynamics.
For businesses operating in China, the implications are clear: regulatory scrutiny is not only intensifying but also becoming more sophisticated. The shift from case-by-case enforcement to systemic policy review means that companies must ensure compliance not just with their own market conduct but also with the broader regulatory framework governing their industries.
International Engagement
China has also been deepening its international competition policy cooperation. According to the research, 19 out of 23 free trade agreements signed by China now contain competition chapters (82.6%), and the country has engaged in cooperation with Italy, Pakistan, Australia, and Mongolia on competition policy matters.
Looking Ahead
The 2025 report suggests that China’s anti-monopoly enforcement will continue to intensify, with a growing emphasis on proactive policy review rather than reactive case handling. The shift toward systemic review of government policies — nearly 60,000 measures examined in a single year — represents a significant expansion of the regulatory footprint. As China navigates economic headwinds, the push for fair competition and a unified market is likely to remain a central pillar of its economic strategy.
The full PDF report, available for download from the SAMR website, is expected to contain detailed sector-by-sector analysis that will provide further insight into enforcement priorities and industry-specific trends.