On July 14, 2013, Xinhua published an article commenting on the Chinese bribery investigation into the British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), stating that GSK is just one of many foreign firms that have been involved in bribery in China. “In recent years, multinational companies have caused China to become one of the hardest hit in the commission of bribery.”
According to Xinhua, in December 2012, Eli Lilly settled for $30 million when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged it with bribing foreign government officials to expand its market in Russia, Brazil, China, and Poland. In August 2012, Pfizer paid $60 million in fines for offering bribes to government medical staff in eight countries including China. Toward the end of 2008, Siemens was fined $1.3 billion for its corrupt practices involving five Chinese government-owned hospitals. It had paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes to physicians and lab personnel, ultimately resulting in huge orders for medical equipment.