China's Vice Finance Minister Guo Tingting: Uphold openness, support Hong Kong's role in global accounting governance
China's Vice Finance Minister Guo Tingting said Beijing remains committed to high-standard openness and will support Hong Kong's accounting sector and its status as an international financial hub. Speaking at a forum in Hong Kong, she outlined four priorities including AI regulation, anti-fraud meas
China's Vice Finance Minister Guo Tingting said the country remains committed to expanding high-standard openness to the outside world and actively participates in global economic governance, including accounting and auditing governance. She added that domestic authorities treat all institutions operating in China equally. The finance ministry will continue to support the prosperity of Hong Kong's accounting and auditing industry and help consolidate the city's status as an international financial centre.
Speaking at the Accounting and Financial Reporting Council Regional Regulatory Forum in Hong Kong, Guo noted that a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating, with the global economic landscape undergoing deep adjustment. Cross-border investment and financing activities remain active, while digitalisation, intelligence and green development have become key directions and drivers. New forms of production, lifestyles and business models are emerging, presenting opportunities and challenges for the global accounting and auditing industry in areas such as ESG sustainable disclosure and digital auditing.
Guo proposed four points to address the new situation. First, she called for joint efforts to tackle new regulatory challenges, particularly regarding emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain. She said regulation must balance development and security, avoiding both the rigid application of old rules that stifle innovation and regulatory gaps that allow risks such as algorithm black boxes and data monopolies.
Second, Guo said China this year added a chapter on supervision and management to its Certified Public Accountants Law, establishing a tiered regulatory system from education and warnings to administrative penalties. A national unified supervision and inspection platform for the accounting and appraisal industries has been initially set up to improve risk identification and early warning capabilities.
Third, Guo stressed the need to strengthen corporate governance. She said the root cause of financial fraud and audit failures often lies in ineffective corporate governance rather than just the audit process. If regulators focus only on accounting firms while ignoring the primary responsibility of companies, it will be difficult to curb fraud at its source. China has been improving its full-chain financial supervision system to hold companies accountable, conducting two-way inspections that check both audit quality and corporate financial information quality, as well as internal control effectiveness.
Finally, Guo called for greater transparency in cross-border financial reporting. She said efforts to crack down on financial fraud and audit violations should be intensified, both domestically through administrative regulation and industry self-discipline, and internationally through deepened cross-border regulatory cooperation to build interdependent accounting and auditing oversight mechanisms.
Guo also expressed concern about some accounting firms that prioritise scale and revenue over quality control, with partner evaluations and compensation overly tied to business income, weakening independence and leading to declining professional standards. She described integrity as the lifeline of the industry, urging a culture of honesty, professional ethics and adherence to standards, and rejecting a "revenue-first" evaluation approach. She stressed zero tolerance for financial fraud and audit violations, vowing strict regulation to create a clean professional environment.