Chinese Companies Face US Audit Bill

[CaoLanh]

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By NTD Newsroom
Dec. 05, 2020

A newly passed House bill would require Chinese companies to meet U.S. accounting standards when trading on U.S. exchanges. This includes giving access to U.S. auditors.

NTD spoke to Curtis Ellis. He’s a senior policy adviser with America First Policies and a former adviser to the Trump administration. Ellis says the bill is a step in the right direction.

“There’s absolutely no reason Chinese companies that fail to allow us to look into their books should be raising money on U.S. stock exchanges. They’re being held to a different standard than American companies. If an American company tried to do with these Chinese companies are doing they probably end up in a lawsuit or maybe even in prison somewhere,” said Ellis.

Ellis says Chinese companies may agree to open their books to stay in American capital markets. Then, American investors would at least know what they’re buying into.

Under the bill, foreign companies that fail to comply with audits for three consecutive years will be kicked out. Chinese companies must also show how much the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is involved in their operations.

Many big Wall Street Firms are against the bill.

“The Wall Street firms, whether it’s Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BlackRock is a perfect example, are the biggest cheerleaders for doing business in China. They don’t care where they make their money and they don’t care what kind of blood is on their hands in making the money,” said Ellis.

Ellis warns about how China is using its Wall Street allies to influence American politics. He mentioned that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden picked Brian Deese for the head of the National Economic Council. Deese is the global head of sustainable investing at BlackRock.

“BlackRock is one of the biggest cheerleaders for invest investing in China. And this is very troubling. As American firms, as American Wall Street firms become more deeply enmeshed and entrenched in China, they then become lobbyists for the Chinese Communist Party,” said Ellis.

The Wall Street Journal reports that BlackRock helped drive the MSCI Index into including Chinese shares. This flooded China’s stock market with tens of billions of dollars.

On Wednesday, the White House said President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law.


Reporting by Hanzi Chen