Hello, I'm David Plott, Emlex's managing editor for Asia. I'm coming to you today from our

Bureau in Hong Kong. Welcome to this latest in Emlex's ongoing series of audio briefings. China's been making headline news a lot recently.

Two days ago, its president was given the power to rule for life. A couple of days before that,

the Chinese government lashed out at U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for steel tariffs.

But today, just a few hours ago, in fact,

an announcement came out of Beijing that will have made those of you in the antitrust community

really sit up and take notice. China unveiled a plan that will completely reshape the way it

enforces antitrust law. Instead of splitting enforcement among three government bodies,

it will bring enforcement together under one regulator.

This has been the subject of discussion for a long time,

but today China's leaders actually went ahead and did it.

Here with me now to talk about China's antitrust overhaul is M-Lex market analyst,

Elliot Gow. Welcome to this podcast, Elliot. Thank you, David. Elliot, give us a little

background on this institutional shake-up. What exactly does it involve and what does it aim to do?

So this morning, the government announced the plans to consolidate the three antitrust agencies

and the three different ministries into one single authority.

According to a draft plan on the state institutional reform of the state council, which is China's cabinet.

The government will establish a national administration for market supervision in the new cabinet.

The new market supervision administration will combine the current and adjust functions

at the National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, the state

administration for industry and commerce, or SAIC, and the Ministry of Commerce, or MOFCOM,

and consolidate their personnel and resources into one single authority.

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