This thesis explores, first, the evolvement and implementation of competition policy in China, where a competition culture was largely missing for decades; and second, the extent to which the government has resolved the inherent contradiction between preserving state control and promoting competition. The main aim is to evaluate how a competition law, which is essentially a product of capitalist free market economy, is being applied in China, a socialist country where predominant state-owned enterprises (SOEs) together with their owner – the Chinese government – generate the most distortions to market competition. To achieve this aim, the thesis studies, first, the ongoing economic transition and the historical development of Chinese competition policy; second, the prolonged drafting process of the Anti- Monopoly Law (AML); third, the substantive and institutional aspects of the enforcement of the AML, and the outstanding problems of the current competition system; and fourth, the role of the government in the interplay between competition policy and SOEs. The thesis also studies the European Union (EU) competition regime, which had substantial influence on the adoption of the AML and the design of China’s competition system. This discussion intends to use the experiences of the EU in modernising its competition system and in handling competition-related issues involving public enterprises to provide some meaningful answers to certain problems concerning the application of the AML and to possible reform of competition system in China.

The United States emerged as a guardian of global economic integration between 1905 and 1929. As U.S. entrepreneurs established enterprises in the circum-Caribbean during the late nineteenth century, they participated in a highly integrated flow of capital extending from Europe to the peripheries of the capitalist world. However, the default crisis that swept the region between 1890 and 1910 shook European investor confidence and vaulted financiers from the United States to the center of U.S. reform efforts. Whereas the U.S. State Department proposed financial receiverships in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Nicaragua in order to combat the destabilizing influence of a previous generation of international financiers, it also turned to U.S. banking houses in order to repair Central American bond markets in the eyes of investors from the United States and Europe. These efforts stirred conflict abroad and political controversy at home. For Capital or Country demonstrates why the international capital dynamics that underlay U.S. economic development abroad are vital to understanding key U.S. foreign policy disputes during the early 20th century. It recovers the central role that international financiers played in advancing U.S. diplomacy in this period and explains why anti-monopoly reformers in Congress targeted the practices of financiers in their prolonged revolt against foreign economic entanglements. Chapter 1 explores the international financial conditions that shaped President Theodore Roosevelt’s Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. During the Dominican receivership, which began in 1905, U.S. policymakers sought to reform an inequitable system of concessions that a U.S. company had used to control the Dominican Republic, with the goal of facilitating the peaceful integration of U.S. and European capital investments throughout the region. Chapter 2 examines how the United Fruit Company leveraged political power and debt crises to thwart other U.S. financiers’ efforts to build railways in Central America. Chapter 3 explains how financiers of the Mexican Revolution ignited backlash among anti-monopolists in Congress, who wanted to disentangle their government from protecting capital investments abroad. Chapter 4 considers how J.P. Morgan & Company’s efforts to mobilize credit and munitions manufacturing for the Allies during World War I influenced preparedness and postwar reconstruction debates in Congress. Chapter 5 explains how Senator Robert La Follette’s independent Progressive campaign for President in 1924 arose in opposition to U.S. financiers’ efforts to restore global economic interdependence after World War I and shaped anti-monopoly views on foreign affairs in the late 1920s. By reframing the conventional dichotomy in U.S. political history between “internationalists” and “isolationists” in the context of global finance and anti-monopoly politics, this dissertation shows how financiers and international finance influenced debates and policies concerning the United States’ role in the world during the early 20th century. / 2026-10-31T00:00:00Z

This thesis presents the Chinese and European competition laws on abuse of dominant position. The thesis starts with an introduction, and goes on to present the purpose of the study, which is to determine the similarities and differences between the Chinese and European prohibitions on ADP.       After the introductory part, consisting of background, method, material and previos research, the respective prohibitions are described in different aspects. The aspects are namely system, purpose, scope of application, what constitutes dominance and what constitutes abuse. Thereafter, the two prohibitions are compared. In the comparison, similarities are presented such as similar purposes, similar scope of application, very similar in what constitutes a dominant position and abuse. The systematics however differ more, and so do the rules on extraterritorial application.      In the concluding remarks, the results of the thesis are highlighted and the author shortly analyses the results..

In South Africa compliance with competition law has become a major concern for firms that achieve and maintain certain levels of success and growth in the market, as their actions are often a source of complaints and litigation by rivals and competition authorities. With substantial financial penalties often levied against them for a variety of conduct deemed to constitute an abuse of their market position, dominant firms must constantly be aware of the likely impact of their business strategies and actions on both rivals and consumers. What were once thought to be normal and economically sound business practices and decisions, such as cutting prices to attract customers, have now acquired new meanings, with devastating consequences for dominant firms. So, are dominant firms under attack from competition law? In this study I aim to determine this. I track the historical development of competition law in three jurisdictions: South Africa, America, and the EU, with the aim of identifying traces, if any, of hostility towards dominant firms in the origins of competition law. I further investigate whether the formulation and enforcement of certain aspects of existing abuse of dominance provisions manifest as hostility towards dominant firms. While acknowledging the important role that competition law enforcement plays in promoting competition and enhancing consumer welfare, I conclude that significant unjustified economic and legal prejudice is suffered by dominant firms as a result of the way in which certain abuse of dominance provisions have been formulated and applied. I also offer appropriate recommendations. / Mercantile Law / LL. D.