China will soon slap a penalty on an unnamed U.S. automaker for monopolistic behavior, the official China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday, quoting a senior state planning official. News of the penalty comes at a sensitive time for China-U.S. relations after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump called into question a long-standing U.S. policy of acknowledging that Taiwan is part of "one China".

Vehicles in Beijing, China. Getty Images

Beijing maintains that self-ruled Taiwan is a wayward province of China and has never renounced the use of force to take it back.

Investigators found the U.S. company had instructed distributors to fix prices starting in 2014, Zhang Handong, director of the National Development and Reform Commission's price supervision bureau, was quoted as saying. In an exclusive interview with the newspaper, Zhang said no one should "read anything improper" into the timing or target of the penalty. The article did not give further details and the NDRC did not immediately respond to requests for comment. China, the world's largest auto market, has become crucial to the strategies of car companies around the world, including major U.S. players General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co. "We are unaware of the issue," said Mark Truby, Ford's chief spokesman for its Asia-Pacific operations. In a statement, GM said: "GM fully respects local laws and regulations wherever we operate. We do not comment on media speculation."

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