The Chinese Ministry of Commerce conditionally approves its first merger under the control regime (InBev / AB)

In the first major test of China’s new merger control regime, the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (“MOFCOM”) has published its decision approving the proposed InBev/Anheuser-Busch merger (see translation set forth below), and released on its website an interview with Shang Ming, Director of MOFCOM’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau, in which he provides details relating to MOFCOM’s handling of this case and others. Taken together, these developments indicate that China is moving swiftly to implement its Anti- Monopoly Law (“AML”), which entered into effect on August 1, 2008, and that MOFCOM, which has