CHINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Greg Hallahan, Amanda Rasmussen and Kristine Kwok, Secretariat
Corporate records Searches of corporate records administered by the State Administration of Market Regulation (the “SAMR” ) are unusually comprehensive and flexible compared to many other jurisdictions. Unlike certain states in the USA (such as Califor - nia, New York and Delaware), company share - holders in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) must be disclosed. Corporate records also include lists of subsidiar - ies and investments both locally and overseas. This makes asset tracing on private companies substantially more straightforward than many other jurisdictions, where corporate registries do not make this information so accessible. Historic information is also catalogued, and includes former shareholders, key principals and registered addresses, usually dating back about five to ten years. Both reverse shareholder and key principal checks are possible. Therefore, it is easier to identify company equity holdings held by an individual in China than through the Hong Kong Companies Registry, for example, where only reverse directorship checks are possible. In the PRC, the commonality of surnames makes it challenging to identify which businesses relate to which individuals (ie, eliminating false posi - tives). Corporate data aggregators are helpful in this regard as they aggregate businesses likely associated with particular individuals on the basis of personal identifiers not disclosed to the public (although it has to be noted that they are not consistently correct).
Accessing Publicly Available Information Trends in China Introduction Easy access to publicly available information in China, in support of fraud and/or asset trac - ing investigations or for other purposes, has become more difficult from outside China over the past few years. Within China, access to (and subsequent use of) information has been impacted by state secrets, national security, data privacy and cross-border transfer rules as follows. • The amended Law on Guarding State Secrets, which took effect on 1 May 2024, not only covers state secrets but also intro - duced the concept of “work secret” referring to unclassified information known to govern - ment agencies and shared with companies which, if disclosed publicly, could result in an “adverse impact” . • The Personal Information Protection Law, which came into effect on 1 November 2021, protects personally identifiable information (PII) about Chinese nationals, regardless of whether they are based in China or abroad. • The Data Security Law, which was introduced on 1 September 2021, regulates the use, stor - age and transfer of data according to various security classifications. • The Civil Code governs civil matters includ - ing property rights, contracts, inheritance and torts and came into effect on 1 January 2021. However, it is important to emphasise that there is still a wide range of current and historic infor - mation publicly available from within China that is relevant to identifying assets and indications of fraud.
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