When, on Sept. 19, a Chinese court handed down the country’s largest-ever fine, $490 million, to British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc. for bribing doctors, it was the latest sign—and one of the most dramatic—of China’s crackdown on corporate corruption.

“The Chinese regulators are learning from their U.S. counterparts,” says Todd Liao, a Shanghai partner at Dentons. “They will continue to increase the intensity and frequency of enforcement.”