(Photo : China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC))

August 21^st, Beijing - According to sources, recently, Xu Xinyu, a senior official of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), pressures on more than 30 foreign firms including General Electric and Siemens at a meeting. Xu Xinyu urges these foreign firms to confess their monopoly behaviors. The Chinese senior official warns them not to hire external lawyers to fight against accusations from China's supervision departments.

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The NDRC is a macroeconomic management agency under the Chinese State Council, which has broad administrative and planning control over the Chinese economy. Its functions are to study and formulate policies for economic and social development, maintain the balance of economic development, and to guide restructuring of China's economic system.

Now, Chinese government is tightening the enforcement of its anti-monopoly law. The meeting is symptomatic of the tensions between foreign firms and China's array of regulators.

According to two insiders who took part in the closed-door meeting during July 24^th-25^th, Xu Xinyu showed how to write so-called "self-criticisms" to their in-house lawyers. In addition, Xu showed some copies of letters from companies that had admitted guilt in past antitrust cases.

An insiders recalled, Xu Xinyu said half of the companies attending the meeting were either being investigated or had been investigated by the NDRC. However, Xu Xinyu didn't specify what companies they were. Another insiders said Xu wants to transmit a message that if any foreign companies want to fight against China's array of regulators, then the NDRC will double or triple their fines.

According to sources of Reuters, the following companies attended the meeting. They are GE; Siemens; Samsung Electronics; Microsoft; Volvo; IBM Corp; Michelin; Tetra Pak; Intel Corp; Qualcomm; Dumex and U.S. cable equipment maker ARRIS Group Inc.