Although the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (“MIIT”) is not one of the AML Enforcement Authorities, after the Tencent – Qihoo online fight last November it has become increasingly active with respect to issues that affect its mandate to manage the internet in the PRC.
On July 27, 2011 it released for comments and revised version of proposed draft rules governing competition in the internet industry:
Text (in Chinese) of 互联网信息服务管理规定（征求意见稿）http://www.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11293832/n11293907/n11368223/13965551.html
The Draft Rules (as well as its predecessor, the Interim Rules) demonstrate MIIT’s efforts in filling this gap. Many of the unfair competition conducts that Tencent (operator of QQ, one of the most popular instant-messaging tools in China) and Qihoo (provider of 360, a widely used antivirus software product in China) accused each other of doing, such as causing incompatibility against competitors’ services or products, could have been caught by the Draft Rules had the Draft Rules been in place back then.