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The SAIC has questioned Microsoft's lawyer,
Deputy General Counsel Mary Snapp, who was at the regulator's
offices on Monday, a spokesman for the SAIC said.
Last week, the SAIC said it was formally investigating Microsoft
for breach of anti-trust rules and had raided four of the
software firm's offices in China.
"Microsoft promised to respect Chinese law and fully cooperate
with the SAIC's investigation work," the SAIC said in an
e-mailed statement. Microsoft declined to provide immediate
comment, but last week said its "business practices are designed
to be compliant with Chinese law."
The warning is likely a preemptive step in the course of the
government's investigation.
"I don't think the government is saying Microsoft has already
done anything to obstruct the investigation, otherwise they
would have publicized it," said You Yunting, a senior partner at
Shanghai DeBund Law Offices. "In China, you do everything you
have to to completely submit if the authorities investigate you.
The government is saying, 'We might be more lenient if you don't
resist, otherwise we'll be tough'."
Microsoft has been suspected of violating China's anti-monopoly
law since June last year in relation to problems with
compatibility, bundling and document authentication, the SAIC
said last week.
But industry experts have questioned how exactly Microsoft is
violating anti-trust regulations in China, where the size of its
business is negligible.
The U.S. company has taken a public beating in China in recent
months. It has been subject to wider scrutiny against U.S.
technology firms in China in the wake of former U.S. National
Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's cyber espionage
revelations.
It has also seen service for its OneDrive cloud storage service
disrupted in China, and had its latest Windows 8 operating
system banned from being installed on the central government's
new computers.
(Reporting by Paul Carsten, Gerry Shih and Beijing Newsroom;
Editing by Miral Fahmy and Ian Geoghegan)
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