China’s anti-monopoly crackdown turns on foreign firms

The aggressive use of anti-monopoly laws against foreign companies by the Chinese government is unprecedented and raises the risk for multinational firms operating in the world's second biggest economy, according to business leaders.

Over the last two weeks, China has accused at least 20 high-profile American, Japanese and German companies of breaching competition laws, while excluding Apple products from a government procurement list.

"We've never seen anything like this before," Geoff Raby, a former Australian ambassador in Beijing and now a company director, said.

"This is big and the stakes are very high. It would not be happening without senior level endorsement [from the Communist Party]."