Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 9, 2025

The Realization of Institutional Opening-Up through Competition Law

(Abstract)

Sun Jin

Competition law institutionally crystallizes China’s reform and opening-up. As the legal embodiment of high-level opening-up, institutional opening-up contains profound competition law principles and reflects the evolving trajectory of the concept and rules of fair competition. Yet the current institutional supply of competition law remains inadequate to support both deepening reform and expanding openness. Institutional opening-up embodies the attributes of competition law, the characteristics of fair competition, and the operational logic of competition law. At the theoretical level, competition law promoting institutional opening-up operates along two dimensions: inheriting international competition rules and taking the lead in shaping them. At the practical level, an inclusive opening-up strategy centered on the rule of competition law aligns more closely with China’s national conditions and development trends. The rule of law for competition must be further refined in terms of governance rules, tools and mechanisms. Based on the principle of fair competition, China should improve its competition rule system by internalizing international norms and externalizing domestic rules, thereby optimizing regulatory methods, refining management tools, strengthening standards, and advancing institutional opening-up.