Chinese regulatory agencies announced fines totaling $46 million against Volkswagen and Chrysler on Thursday after finding them guilty of violating antitrust laws, while the government rejected accusations that multinationals were being singled out for unfair scrutiny.The penalties on Volkswagen and Chrysler were the latest in a series of tough measures by antimonopoly regulators in China, including fines totaling about $200 million that were imposed on Aug. 20 on a dozen Japanese auto parts and bearings makers accused of conspiring to overcharge automakers’ assembly plants.
But Chinese officials have taken pains in recent weeks to deny that they are aiming at multinationals. Prime Minister Li Keqiang said on Tuesday that antitrust cases against foreign companies represented only a tenth of all such investigations.
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