How Chinese Enterprises Should Cope With International Anti-Bribery&Corruption Regulations

The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China passed theAmendment (Ⅷ) of the Criminal Law (“PRC Criminal Law Amendment (Ⅷ)”) inFebruary2011, which formed the legal basis for China to crack down the emergingissues of foreign briberies. This article discusses the foreign bribery provisions in thePRC Criminal Law Amendment (Ⅷ) as well as the U.S. Foreign CorruptedPractices Act (“FCPA”). It also explores how Chinese enterprises should react tothese regulations in the ever-changing international business world.This article is comprised of four major sections.The first section introduces the FCPA and its recent enforcement actions whichlead the international enforcement against anti-bribery&corruption in thecommercial area.The second section introduces the background for setting up the foreign briberyprovisions in China and provides an outline of Provision No.29of the PRC CriminalLaw Amendment (Ⅷ).The third section compares China’s and US’ foreign bribery regulations andpoints out the areas for improvement of the China’s foreign bribery provisions. It alsocomments that multinational companies in modern society have already established a comprehensive anti-bribery and corruption programs in accordance with the FCPA’sstrict requirement.The last, but not least section discusses how Chinese enterprises, especially thosecompanies listed overseas, could establish their own anti-bribery and corruptionprograms in order to cope with the challenging ethics standards in the internationalbusiness world.