CHINA’S business authorities are investigating the offices of Microsoft Corp., the U.S. technology giant confirmed yesterday.

    The State Administration for Industry and Commerce sent its investigators to the company’s offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu yesterday for an official investigation.

    It is unclear why the company is being looked into.

    Sina, China’s most popular Web portal, quoted sources close to the situation as saying yesterday that the company is suspected of having a monopoly. Microsoft China spokeswoman Joan Li confirmed that the company was being investigated and said it would “actively cooperate” with the government. She did not specify what the investigation was about.

    In late May, China announced a ban on government use of Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest operating system.

    At the time, the official Xinhua News Agency reported that the ban was to ensure computer security after Microsoft ended support for its Windows XP operating system, which was widely used in China.

    Less than two weeks later, China Central Television aired a strongly critical program, in which experts suggested Windows 8 was being used to grab information on Chinese citizens.

    Experts said the operating system posed a “big challenge” to China’s cybersecurity efforts. They also suggested that Windows 8 was one of the methods that the United States’ National Security Agency was using to spirit data out of China.

    Chinese officials have previously stressed that Microsoft should lower the price of Windows. They have also told local news media that the nation should develop its own operating system to reduce its reliance on foreign companies.

    But the Chinese Government has still been a major Microsoft customer.(SD-Agencies)