President Trump nominee Paul Atkins, as the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, faced equally important questions as burned during last week's confirmation.
Will longtime securities lawyers and regulators investigate Chinese companies that one senator considers to be a fraudulent and blatant violation of US disclosure laws that have been unchecked for years?
Atkins said he would do so, so he helped him squeeze in the confirmation process with just 52 votes.
Although no reports have been reported between FLORIDA GOP Senators Rick Scott and Atkins, the Post knows that the usually mild Scott didn't etch the words with Atkins.
Scott said his confirmation vote is a condition for Atkins to step up scrutiny of Chinese companies. As soon as he takes office, he will “delist” and remove those suspected of violating US laws from US exchanges.
The crackdown is important and perhaps one of the biggest things the SEC has done in its history. 300 Chinese companies representing market value of over $1 trillion, trade in the US market, namely the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Composite.
Depending on who you talk to, many or all of them could be abolished.
The controversy over Chinese companies operating public stock trading here has been brewed for years. Critics believe that giving China access to our markets and public capital has encouraged the quest for military and economic domination. During Trump's first term in 2020, he signed a legislative clause that would grant regulators the ability to abolish China Co. for violations of disclosure rules.
Among the concerns of lawmakers is that Chinese companies fail to properly explain the influence of China's Communist Party and the ownership of the corporation, and use opposition slave labor as part of their normal business operations. China Inc.'s American Investors can hardly rely on them if they're scamed by Rouge Nation.
Biden's Disability
According to Congressional sources, efforts to crack down on these alleged abuses have been hampered by Gary Gensler, the Biden administration, or SEC chief Gary Gensler, now a business professor at MIT. (Gensler did not respond to requests for comment.) Discussion was largely limited to Think Tanks and the Congressional Hall.
no longer. His trade war has escalated as Trump returns to the White House, with a special emphasis on everything in China. Registration efforts can pick up steam.
Atkins, who must report to the GOP-controlled Congress, not just the president, for oversight, is ultimately pressured to crack down on it.
These moves will, of course, put both major US exchanges in tight spaces. The NYSE and NASDAQ usually register businesses in fragments if they are unable to meet financial listing requirements or are charged with fraud. Here they are chopping up major tech companies on the balance sheet and retailers such as Alibaba, China's online retailer, trade in the US, and paying a lot of money to attract capital from the market.
It is one of the most confusing corporate actions that exchanges have ever taken, and it cannot be said that exchanges should not have come. The NYSE listed Alibaba, even though the once outspoken Jack Ma was its founder and came under the Chinese Communist Party's thumb. He appears to have disappeared from public view after minor criticism of China's banking restrictions.
The list ignored the interesting language of Alibaba's “Prospectus” (the official IPO document). This reveals “risks associated with doing business in the People's Republic of China.”
Here are some of the above that could have caused blindness: NYSE charges companies such as Alibaba ($250 billion in market capitalization) as $500,000 and various additional charges. The US list of famous “big commissions” goes a long way in getting US investors to buy stocks, despite critics claiming they fund the economic capabilities of one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet.
A NYSE spokesperson provided this explanation. “The NYSE is required to be non-discriminatory in the application of SEC-approved listing standards.”
Alibaba press did not reply to requests for comment. A SEC spokesperson declined to comment.
Another massive US exchange, Nasdaq, also wanted it to be a list of lucrative Chinese companies, and has made a loophole with controversial and now deserted board rules. These rules have led American companies to appoint a certain number of women, minorities and LGBTQ+ people to their board of directors.
It did not apply to China. That's right, and there is no authority to force China-listed companies to appoint suppressed ethnic and religious minorities from the Nasdaq.
Nasdaq did not have any comments.
End of “Golden Share”
Again, this may all be changing thanks to Scott's efforts. He believes that US investors should know how their money is being used when purchasing Chinese stocks, or index funds that include public Chinese companies. In addition to Atkins's (who refused to comment), Scott is pushing for legislation seeking to end China's use of so-called “golden share.”
This is a special type of stock held by CCP, and he believes he believes he controls these companies outside of the US disclosure rules.
“Scott is obsessed with this,” said one person close to the senator.
