China: A Competition/Antitrust (International Firms) Overview
Regulatory Trends in the Scrutiny of Inbound and Outbound Deals
Merger control in China
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) released the Guidelines on Non-horizontal Merger Review in December 2025, following the issuance of the Guidelines on Horizontal Merger Review in December 2024, further enhancing the quality and transparency of the merger filing review procedure. Regulatory reform also progressed, with SAMR formally delegating part of its simplified merger review responsibilities to five provincial regulators after a successful pilot programme, starting from 1 August 2025. On the judicial front, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court dismissed an administrative lawsuit challenging SAMR’s conditional approval of Simcere’s acquisition of Tobishi in March 2025. This was China’s first judicial review concerning merger control since the Anti-Monopoly Law’s implementation.
The past year also witnessed a significant increase in the number of blocked or conditionally approved merger cases, with one block decision and six conditional approval decisions in 2025, compared to only one conditional approval decision and no block decision in 2024. In July 2025, SAMR broke new ground by blocking and unwinding Wuhan Yongtong Pharmaceutical’s completed acquisition, making it China’s first-ever decision to prohibit a call-in transaction, and the first to unwind a completed merger in the context of merger review. SAMR also granted conditional approvals for several major transactions in various strategic sectors, which featured innovative theories of harm and reflected heightened scrutiny of deals with complex competition issues and potential implications for the public interest.
SAMR also continued its efforts against failure-to-file and gun-jumping violations, releasing five administrative penalty cases in 2025. In February 2025, SAMR released the Discretion Benchmarks for Imposing Administrative Penalties for Illegal Implementation of Concentrations (for Trial Implementation), which covered failures-to-notify, gun-jumping and non-compliance with call-in review requests or merger conditions, detailing the steps for exercising discretion with the goal of aligning and unifying the application of discretionary powers, thereby enhancing the transparency and predictability of antitrust enforcement.
Regulatory review in other jurisdictions and implications for Chinese enterprises
Merger control
In the EU, the European Commission will adopt a more forward-looking and innovation-focused approach to deal with reviews ahead of the publication of its final revised merger guidelines, according to EU competition commissioner Teresa Ribera. In the United States, the new pre-merger Notification and Report Form came into effect in February 2025, containing changes that will significantly increase the information burden and preparation time associated with Hart-Scott-Rodino filings.
Australia has introduced a new mandatory merger filing regime, replacing the long-standing voluntary review and merger approval process. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued interim guidance on the merger filing waiver process in December 2025, clarifying the information requirements for applications seeking a waiver from the filing obligation.
There are also other key jurisdictions that recently promulgated or are promulgating reform of merger control regime. For example, In March 2025, the merger filing thresholds under the UAE’s new Competition Law came into effect, introducing an additional turnover‑based threshold to be applied alongside the pre‑existing market share threshold. The Philippines raised its antitrust notification thresholds, taking effect in March 2025. In May 2025, Saudi Arabia issued revised Economic Concentration Review Guidelines, updating the turnover thresholds and providing clearer operational guidance on foreign-to-foreign transactions, control tests, and exemptions for joint ventures. In November 2025, Argentina established a new antitrust authority and plans to replace its long‑standing ex post merger filing regime with a mandatory pre‑merger notification system in November 2026.
Foreign investment review and EU foreign subsidies regulation
Development in FDI screening demonstrated a continuing trend towards greater protectionism and stricter enforcement, especially for those deals concerning China.
In the United States, the Trump administration issued the “America First Investment Policy” memorandum, making significant adjustments to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the “Outbound Investment Security Program”. The memorandum sets out the Trump administration’s strategy for protecting US critical technologies and national security interests from potential threats posed by “foreign adversaries” (including China) in investments, while providing incentives to foreign investors that take measures aligned with US national security interests. The memorandum also signals that the Trump administration may adopt additional measures, such as economic sanctions, to block investments in China’s military-industrial sector.
In August 2025, the UK government announced plans to introduce a series of significant reforms to the National Security and Investment Act (NSIA) regime, including proposed exemptions from mandatory filing for certain intra-group restructuring transactions, measures to reduce corporate compliance burdens, and revisions and refinements to the definition of “sensitive activities” in certain sectors. Under the NSIA, the UK issued a rare prohibition order blocking a joint venture between two materials companies in China and the UK. For the first time within the NSIA framework, graphene was identified as a technology of national security concern, signalling a tightening of scrutiny over Chinese investment in the advanced materials sector. In addition, the UK High Court upheld a divestment order issued under the NSIA on national security grounds and dismissed an application for judicial review brought by a China-linked acquirer, demonstrating that the court sets an exceptionally high bar for overturning national security decisions.
The European Parliament adopted, in May 2025, a draft amendment to the EU Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Screening Regulation, which sought to grant the European Commission the power to block or impose remedies on specific transactions. In December 2025, EU member states reached a provisional political agreement on the amendment of the above regulation, under which the Commission was not granted the power to block or impose remedies on transactions. If the screening host member state disagrees with comments or opinions on the transaction that are offered by other member states or the Commission, it will be required to explain its reasons for doing so. The agreement also provided the scope of sensitive sectors subject to mandatory notification requirements, as well as new information‑sharing mechanisms. The provisional agreement will now be endorsed by the Council and the Parliament before being formally adopted. The new rules are likely to start applying in H2 2027.
The second year of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) witnessed a series of landmark cases: the Commission’s second in-depth investigation and conditional approval concerning a merger deal (the acquisition by ADNOC of Covestro); and its unconditional approval of a Chinese investment in phase I (the acquisition of Leoni by Luxshare). In addition, the Commission has stepped up enforcement actions against Chinese companies, including the launch of an in-depth investigation in December 2025 into a Chinese rail equipment manufacturer, as well as the conduct of a “dawn raid” on a Chinese e-commerce company operating in the EU. In January 2026, the Commission issued new guidelines under the FSR. The guidelines explain how the EC assesses whether foreign subsidies are liable to distort competition in the EU, whether the positive effects of such subsidies outweigh such distortions and how it intends to exercise its powers to call in M&A transactions and public tender bids that fall below the thresholds for mandatory notification.
Implications for Chinese outbound investment
Overall, regulatory scrutiny of transactions involving Chinese companies in sensitive sectors in Europe, the UK and the United States continues to intensify against a backdrop of geopolitical tensions. Nevertheless, over‑emphasising political considerations in these regimes is not conducive to advancing concrete outbound investment projects. Many transactions remain capable of being addressed within existing legal frameworks. Chinese enterprises are therefore advised to conduct early‑stage regulatory risk assessments, engage proactively with authorities, closely monitor legislative and enforcement developments, and participate constructively in regulatory consultations.
境内外并购监管趋势
中国经营者集中审查
继 2024 年 12 月发布《横向经营者集中审查指引》之后，国家市场监督管理总局（”总局”）于2025年12月发布了《非横向经营者集中审查指引》，进一步提升了经营者集中申报审查程序的质量和透明度。中国在监管改革方面也取得进展：自 2025 年 8 月 1 日起，在成功完成试点后，总局正式将部分简易案件的审查职责委托给五个省级监管机构。在司法层面，北京知识产权法院于 2025 年 3 月驳回了一起针对总局附条件批准先声药业收购托毕西决定的行政诉讼，该案是《反垄断法》实施以来中国首例涉及经营者集中审查决定的司法审查案件。
过去一年，被禁止或附条件批准的经营者集中案件显著增加：2025 年共有 1 件被禁止案件和 6 件附条件批准案件，相比之下 2024 年仅有 1 件附条件批准案件，无被禁止案件。2025 年 7 月，总局对武汉用通医药一起已完成的收购作出禁止并责令采取措施恢复到集中前状态的决定，开创了中国首次禁止”主动调查（call‑in）”案件及首次在经营者集中审查中要求采取措施恢复到集中前状态的先例。总局还对多个战略领域的重大交易作出附条件批准决定，这些案件体现了创新型危害理论，也反映出总局对具有复杂竞争问题和潜在公共利益影响的交易采取更严格的审查态度。
总局在打击未依法申报和”抢跑”行为方面也持续发力，2025 年共公布了五起相关行政处罚案例。2025 年 2 月，总局发布了《违法实施经营者集中行政处罚裁量权基准（试行）》，涵盖未依法申报、”抢跑”以及不配合主动调查或不履行附加限制性条件等情形，详细列明了行使裁量权的步骤，旨在统一和规范执法裁量权的适用，从而提升反垄断执法的透明度和可预期性。
境外并购监管及对中国企业的启示
反垄断审查
在欧盟，欧委会竞争事务负责人特蕾莎·里韦拉表示，欧委会将在最终修订版反垄断审查指南发布之前，对交易审查采取更加"前瞻性"且"以创新为导向"的方法；在美国，2025年2月，新的HSR反垄断申报表已生效，其大幅提高了HSR申报的信息披露要求及准备时间成本。
澳大利亚推出新的强制性反垄断申报制度，取代了长期以来的自愿审查和并购申报程序,并于2025年12月发布反垄断申报豁免程序临时指引，对申请豁免申报义务的信息要求做出了说明。
此外，还有一些重要司法辖区已经或正在进行并购审查制度的改革。例如，2025年3月，新阿联酋竞争法的反垄断申报门槛生效，引入一个额外的营业额门槛，与此前的市场份额门槛一起适用。菲律宾提高了反垄断申报门槛，于2025年3月生效。2025年5月，沙特发布新版《经济集中审查指南》，更新了营业额门槛，并在境外企业间交易、控制权认定及合营企业豁免方面提供了更清晰的操作指引。2025年11月，阿根廷建立了新的竞争执法机构，并拟于2026年11月以事前申报制度取代长期以来的事后申报制度。
外商投资审查和欧盟外国政府补贴条例
外商投资审查依旧呈现出保护主义色彩增强和审查趋严的态势, 特别是对于与中国有关联的交易。
在美国，特朗普政府发布”美国优先投资政策”备忘录，对CFIUS和"对外投资安全计划"做出重大调整。该备忘录阐述了特朗普政府在投资交易中保护美国关键技术和国家安全利益免受"外国对手"（包括中国）潜在威胁的战略，同时向采取措施与美国国家安全利益保持一致的外国投资者提供激励，并预示特朗普政府可能采取经济制裁等额外措施以阻止对中国军工行业的投资。
2025年8月，英国政府宣布计划对《国家安全与投资法案》（NSIA）作出多项重要改革，包括拟豁免部分集团内重组交易强制申报义务，减轻企业合规负担，并对部分行业”敏感活动”定义调整和细化。英国根据NSIA发布罕见交易禁令阻止中英两家材料公司的合资项目，首次在NSIA框架下将石墨烯列为国家安全关注技术，显示对中国在先进材料领域投资的审查趋严。此外，英国高等法院以国家安全为由维持根据NSIA作出的剥离令，驳回某与中国有关的收购方的司法复审请求，显示法院对推翻国家安全决定设定极高门槛。
欧洲议会于2025年5月通过了一项就《欧盟外商直接投资审查条例》提出的修订草案，该草案拟赋予欧委会否决特定交易或对其施加救济措施的权力。2025年12月，欧盟成员国就该条例修订达成临时政治协议，该协议未赋予欧委会否决特定交易或对其施加救济措施的权力，但若作为审查方的东道成员国不同意其他成员国或欧委会就该交易提出的意见或建议，则其将被要求说明作出该等不同意见的理由。此外，该协议还对实施强制申报制度的敏感行业范围及新型信息共享机制等做出了规定。该协议将在由欧盟理事会和欧洲议会认可后正式通过，预计将于2027年下半年左右起实施。
FSR实施的第二年内发生了多起标志性案件：欧委会根据FSR发起第二例针对经营者集中的深入调查（阿布扎比国家石油公司收购德国科思创股份公司案）并做出附条件批准决定；此外，欧委会在第一审查阶段无条件批准了一项中国企业的收购交易（立讯精密收购莱尼）。此外，欧委会对中国企业密集发起执法行动，包括于2025年12月对某中资轨道装备制造商启动深入调查，以及对某中资在欧电商企业实施”黎明突袭”。2026年1月，欧委会发布FSR指南，该指南阐明了欧委会如何评估外国补贴是否可能扭曲欧盟内的竞争、此类补贴的积极效应是否足以抵消其带来的扭曲效应，以及欧委会将如何行使其权力，主动审查未达到强制申报标准的并购交易和公共采购。
对中国企业海外投资的启示
总体而言，在地缘政治背景下，英美欧地区对涉及中国企业、尤其是敏感行业领域交易的监管持续趋严。但若过度强调并购及投资监管制度中的政治因素，反而不利于推动中国企业具体海外投资项目的落地。实践中，不少交易仍可在既有法律框架内妥善解决。建议中国企业在海外布局初期即开展系统性的合规与风险评估，积极与监管机构沟通，密切关注相关立法及执法动向，并适当参与制度层面的政策讨论。.