Opinion: Why the audit fight between regulators will hurt China

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clpstaff &clp articles

The Big Four accounting firms have ignored requests to submit auditing papers to the US Securities and Exchange Commission because it violates Chinese law, but as Paul Gillis points out, China will lose out unless a compromise is found

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shook markets for US-listed Chinese companies last December when it charged the Big Four accounting firms and BDO with violations of US securities laws for refusing to give audit working papers to the SEC. In a separate case, the SEC is suing Deloitte in federal court to get the audit working papers on Longtop Financial Technologies, a Deloitte client that collapsed under fraud allegations.

Separately, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has been blocked from inspecting Chinese accounting firms that audit US listed companies.

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