But Shang denied that China was partial to any specific side in handling the cases and said that the number of rejected and conditioned cases account for a small part of all cases.

Since 2008, there was only one M&A case, the Coca-Cola deal, that was rejected, while 10 cases, or less than 4 percent of all M&A cases handled by the ministry were approved with additional clauses attached, Shang said.

"There is not any indication that China has treated cases and enterprises with discrimination," said Wu Hanhong, director of the Research Center of Industrial Economy and Competition Policy at the Renmin University of China.

"Additional articles are common in international practice."

Countries and regions, including the United States and the European Union, have also imposed conditions on international companies in M&As, including General Electric.

From January to mid-December, about 94 percent of M&A cases handled by the ministry were approved with no conditions, according to the statement released by the ministry on Tuesday.

And they include the world's largest food producer Nestle SA's $2.07 billion purchase of a 60 percent stake of the Chinese snack and candy maker Hsu Fu Chi International Ltd in July. Only four cases were approved with additional clauses during the same period.

There are signs that the government has been trying to improve the supervision and management of M&A deals. In July, US and Chinese antitrust agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help enhance their cooperation.

Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, one of two US antitrust regulators, was quoted as saying that "what we've seen so far from the Chinese antitrust agencies is very promising".

Reuters contributed to this story.