Important changes are expected in the operation of the
Chinese merger control regime. The Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress in the People's
Republic of China ("PRC") adopted its first
comprehensive antitrust law, the Anti-Monopoly Law
("AML"), in August of 2007, including an antitrust
review regime for mergers and acquisitions. The AML will become
effective on August 1, 2008, and will bring about wide-ranging
changes. This client alert serves as a short overview only of
just one aspect of the changes, namely, the proposed merger
control rules and merger review process. Existing merger
control rules, which have been applicable only to foreign
companies and have had no formal enforcement mechanism, will be
replaced. To this end, the Legislative Affairs Office of the
State Council of the PRC recently issued a Draft Regulation on
Notification of Concentration of Undertakings (the "Draft
