Hard to swallow

摘要

Last August, after 14 years of debate, the Chinese government at last imposed what was informally referred to as its "economic constitution", a broad anti-monopoly law for a country rife with state-imposed monopolies. Since then people have wondered how the law would be applied, and whether it would advance China's transformation into a market economy, or serve as an impediment to genuine competition. On March 18th an answer emerged with the rejection of the largest outright acquisition by a foreign firm, a $2.4 billion offer by Coca-Cola for ChinarnHuiyuan, China's largest juice company.