Investigations are an essential tool for ensuring a company’s ethical standards are being followed by employees, business partners, and any others with whom the company interacts. However, investigations are also an essential tool for demonstrating and maintaining strong corporate governance – an integral part of a company’s ESG commitments and strategy. It is also a good time to set yourself some goals and resolutions. To help you on your way, we are pleased to share our top 5 Lunar New Year Resolutions for handling Internal or Government Investigations

The Guide to Doing Business in China provides an introduction to selected aspects relating to investment and business operations in the People’s Republic of China under current Chinese laws and policy during the COVID pandemic, including a summary of important areas of concern to all investors in China: mergers and acquisitions, data privacy issues, antitrust and competition issues, taxation, employment, intellectual property protection, trade and import and export rules, financial services, as well as anti-bribery compliance and dispute resolution issues.

China has strengthened its commitment to protect personal information by adopting the new Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL 《中华人民共和国个人信息保护法》) which gives data subjects the power to control and determine how, with whom and for what purposes their personal information can be shared, analyzed or handled. Our Firm has previously released a more detailed discussion on the PIPL, which took effect on 1 November 2021.

China has strengthened its commitment to investigate commercial bribery offenses, as indicated by two recent legislative developments — Guiding Opinions on Establishing a Mechanism for Third-party Supervision and Evaluation of the Compliance of Enterprises Involved in Cases (for Trial Implementation) (“Third-Party Mechanism Guiding Opinions,” 《关于建立涉案企业合规第三方监督评估机制的指导意见（试行）》, issued in June 2021) and Opinions on Further Promoting the Investigation of Bribery and Acceptance of Bribes (“Opinions on Dual Investigations,” 《关于进一步推进受贿行贿一起查的意见》, issued in September 2021). These significant developments indicate China’s latest enforcement trends with a renewed focus on bribe givers and commercial bribery, while balancing the need to protect legitimate business interests.

The Supervisors Law of the People’s Republic of China was recently promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on 20 August 2021. Together with other legislation and enforcement activities, the Supervisors Law aims to strengthen President Xi’s anti-corruption campaign and is scheduled to take effect on 1 January 2022.

On 24 June 2020, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued a circular on Carrying out the Follow-up Checks for the Rectification of Market Problems in the Banking and Insurance Sectors (the “Circular”). The CBIRC proposes to launch follow-up checks to review the steps taken to correct industry problems identified in the past three years following some high-profile cases, particularly in the areas of corporate governance, risk management and repeated violations of several laws and regulations.

Our alert sets out a brief summary of key “follow-up” checks outlined in the Circular and provides some practical tips that we have developed from our own experience on how companies can ensure their compliance programs satisfy the guidelines. More information can be found in our guide on 5 Essential Elements Of Corporate Compliance.

The Doing Business in China guide provides an introduction to selected aspects relating to investment and business operations in the People’s Republic of China (PRC or China) under current Chinese laws and policy. China is a vast country, where national laws, local regulations and implementing procedures provide a complex legal…

Amendments to FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy In March 12, 2019, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) modified the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy (the “Policy”). This Policy credits corporations that voluntarily self-disclose, provide full cooperation, and demonstrate timely and appropriate remediation in FCPA matters with a presumption of declination absent aggravating…

Recent developments On 2 January 2019, the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China (MPS) issued the Rules on Collection of Electronic Data by Public Security Bureau When Handling Criminal Cases (“MPS Rules”). The MPS Rules took effect on 1 February 2019. We previously issued an alert on the Rules…

On 26 October 2018, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the revised PRC Criminal Procedure Law (“CPL”) which introduces, among other things, the “default judgment” and “immediate judgment” procedures in criminal trials. The default judgment procedure penalizes defendants who have absconded overseas in respect of bribery and…