Senator seeks discipline for Chinese audit firms

US Senator Charles Schumer has called on federal regulators to censor China-based auditing firms for their refusal to allow joint inspections following a spate of accounting scandals, Reuters reported. Schumer, a prominent Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, relayed his concerns about the lack of progress in recent negotiations in a November 22 letter to James Doty, chairman of the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCOAB). The PCAOB and the US Securities and Exchange Commission have been in talks with the Chinese governments over allowing joint inspections into bookkeeping irregularities, but Beijing has so far blocked any real progress on grounds of commercial sovereignty. “I recognize that the Chinese government is acting to obstruct the board’s inspection of registered Chinese audit firms, but this standoff has gone on long enough,” wrote Schumer.