China’s top leadership has stepped up a campaign against what it calls “disorderly low-price competition,” pledging to build a unified national market and revive sluggish domestic demand. At a high-level economic meeting on 1 July, officials signalled that aggressive price cutting across industries had become a drag on growth and consumer confidence. The push gathered momentum on 2 July when the Communist Party journal Qiushi ran one of its strongest warnings to date about industrial overcapacity and deflationary pressures. The article urged regulators to crack down on price wars that it said waste resources, erode profits and stifle innovation, singling out the photovoltaic, lithium-battery, electric-vehicle and e-commerce sectors. It also faulted some local governments for creating “policy havens” that fuel excess supply. Regulatory follow-through is already emerging. Under an amended Anti-Unfair Competition Law slated to take effect on 15 October, online retail platforms will be barred from coercing third-party merchants into selling goods below cost or offering steep, compulsory discounts that undermine market order. Additional guidelines are expected to address below-cost selling in manufacturing and retail. Analysts see the measures as part of Beijing’s broader effort to cushion the world’s second-largest economy from deflation risks while managing industrial restructuring. “It is encouraging that policymakers now recognise the damage excessive price wars can do, although any fix will be gradual and complicated,” said Fred Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC.