White House Moves To De-List Chinese Companies From American Stock Exchanges

The Trump Administration’s campaign of non-stop foreign policy agitation – from sending Alex Azar to Taiwan, to holding more military exercises in the South China Sea, to Trump threatening to ban TikTok, and imposing sanctions on firms and individuals tied to the Chinese security apparatus in Xinjiang – continues apace Thursday night.

WSJ reports that a new proposal from the Trump Administration calls for all Chinese-domiciled companies with shares listed on American stock exchanges will need to comply with American auditing rules, or de-list by 2022.

It’s not exactly a surprise. The Senate back in May passed a bill entitled the “Holding Foreign Companies Accountable” Act that called for Chinese companies to confirm to American accounting standards, or de-list. The bill was passed in the wake of the Luckin Coffee fraud. 

It has been on the back-burner since.

If it were signed into law, the bill would required Chinese companies to comply with American auditing rules (they’re currently exempt) or face being delisted, which would put $1.3 trillion of US-listed Chinese firms, including behemoths like Alibaba Group and Tencent, at risk of being pushed out of American markets.

In an amusing coincidence, since President Trump is threatening to ‘cut Democrats out’ of an extension of federal unemployment enhancement money and other emergency measures as the negotiations over an extension drag on, this new “proposal” from the Trump Administration would simply bypass Congress to use the SEC and Treasury to enact new regulations that would have the same effect in practice as the pending legislation.

Which begs the question: Why hasn’t Pelosi brought the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act up for a vote already?