China Export Policy Chokes on Vitamin Verdict

Internet cafes covered by the city of Wuhan's Internet Café Association agreed to set minimum prices for online access nearly a decade ago. And more than 100 coking coal company-members of the Coke Association of Shanxi Province each agreed in 2005 to cut production up to 40 percent.

These are two examples of the market power wielded by tens of thousands of quasi-government trade associations in China, many of which were formed since the late 1980s to control production and prices on behalf of government policymakers.