The annual "two sessions" and antitrust law noises

In March every year, lawmakers and political advisers from the National People's Congress (NPC) (Chinas equivalent of Parliament) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) (China's top advisory body) conduct sessions in Beijing to take stock of social, legal and economic issues in China for the preceding year; and discuss objectives (in relation to the same issues) for the year going forward¹. These sessions are often referred to as the "two sessions".

Two statements which have arisen during these two sessions; are of particular interest (from an antitrust law perspective):

• First, Cai Jiming (a CPPCC representative and an academic from Tsinghua University) called for the relevant authorities to consider "breaking up" Baidu into two business segments: its online search engine business; and all other online services. Cai said that this was to ensure that Baidu does not abuse its dominant status in the online search engine industry;