United States Interpretation Of The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act "and Bribery In Business In China

The Foreign Corrupt Practice Act of USA ("FCPA") introduces a brand-new concept to the world, that is, to criminalize the bribery of foreign government officials or officials of public international organization, and to strengthen the internal accounting system and control responsibility of the corporations to avoid bribery.This article begins from the scandals of Lucent and Siemens. By introducing FCPA's promulgation background, revision process and main content, i.e., anti-bribery requirement and accounting requirement, this article presents the concept and ideas of FCPA to readers.However, since the birth of this law, the controversy on this law never stops. Can the idea about overseas anti-bribery and strict financial control system improve or restrain the global fair competition and the international competitiveness of US companies? After analyzing the development process of this law in the US and 30-year regulation development in the global society or other countries, the author finds that the FCPA's concept about overseas anti-bribery and relevant legislation and execution systems have been gradually recognized and accepted by the internationally society and have been reflected in the international convents and the legislation practices in other countries. In view of this, the author would like to introduce two representative international conventions, i.e., the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions Adopted by the Negotiating Conference and the United Nations Convention against Corruption, and further compares the relevant legislation experiences in France, Swiss, Japan and Germany, to prove FCPA's global recognition.Then, the author looked into the commercial anti-bribery system in China and found there existing many problems, for examples, the scope limit of bribee, the lack of accounting regulation system under the anti-bribery area, the responsibilities of shareholders and the encouragement of crime confessing, no overseas anti-bribery, etc. Those problems are caused not only by existing legal system but also by the legal sense and enforcement system. Finally, the author believes that FCPA provides us new thoughts and methods to cope with commercial bribery in China. We should make reference to the successful experience of the FCPA, improve the relative regulation against bribery, strengthen the internal control responsibility of the corporations and adopt multiform sanction methods to strike down commercial bribery in a scientific and effective way. Additionally, the author also hopes that this article can drive further research on this law and relevant laws and regulations and better put this law and its ideas into the real world.