China’s campaign against corruption and corporate bad behaviour is often accused of focusing on foreigners while turning a blind eye to domestic malfeasance.
When Beijing handed out its biggest ever pollution fine this week, it targeted a US company for the crime of open-air spray-painting. That a foreign venture should be shamed in this manner, rather than one of the many smoke-belching coal-fired utilities that ring China’s capital, seems to speak of a skewed sense of priorities.
At first sight, the accusations brought by the Chinese authorities against GlaxoSmithKline seem to fit a similar pattern. The police investigation is part of a wider crackdown by the state on unfair pricing practices. The government believes that Chinese consumers often pay far more for goods and services than they should and the pharmaceuticals industry is an important focus of this inquiry. True, some domestic businesses have been roped into this probe. But most of the high-profile targets to date have been foreign.