In a move which surely has Steve Ballmer tossing chairs around the office this week, China has announced that it will be investigating the Redmond company for every other major political entity's crime of choice these days: manipulative monopolistic business practices. In particular, the State Intellectual Property Office will be looking into software bundling, and discrimanatory pricing practices.

This had to be especially frustrating for Microsoft because China is one of those markets where the company has actually cut their pricing in order to combat software piracy. And the company has long been frustrated by the reluctance of the Chinese to significantly enforce IP laws to reduce piracy. It must seem like terrible bad faith to have your product ripped off egregiously, to then lower your pricing in an effort to accomodate the country's financial issues, only to then be told you're suspected of charging too much and may face sanctions.

Microsoft has said they will cooperate fully, which is what they always say, but I would love to be a fly on the wall at their first discussion with the IP Office. East meets West and cultures clash, no doubt.