Starting in 2011 five China-based accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, were affected by a conflict between U.S. and Chinese law. Specifically, for certain U.S.-listed companies operating and audited in China, the SEC and the PCAOB sought to obtain from the Chinese firms access to their audit work papers and related documents. The firms were, however, advised and directed that under Chinese law, they could not respond directly to the U.S. regulators on those requests, and that requests by foreign regulators for access to such papers in China had to be channeled through the CSRC.
In December 2012, the SEC instituted proceedings under Rule 102(e)(1)(iii) of its Rules of Practice and also under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 against five China-based accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, alleging that these firms had violated U.S. securities laws and the SEC's rules and regulations thereunder by failing to provide to the SEC the firms' work papers related to their audits of certain China-based companies that are publicly traded in the U.S. Rule 102(e)(1)(iii) grants the SEC the authority to deny to any person, temporarily or permanently, the ability to practice before the SEC who is found by the SEC, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, to have willfully violated any such laws or rules and regulations. On January 22, 2014, an initial administrative law decision was issued, censuring these accounting firms and suspending four of the five firms from practicing before the SEC for a period of six months. Four of these China-based accounting firms appealed to the SEC against this decision and, on February 6, 2015, each of the four China-based accounting firms agreed to a censure and to pay a fine to the SEC to settle the dispute and avoid suspension of their ability to practice before the SEC. The firms' ability to continue to serve all their respective customers is not affected by the settlement. The settlement requires the firms to follow detailed procedures to seek to provide the SEC with access to Chinese firms' audit documents via the CSRC. If the firms do not follow these procedures, the SEC could impose penalties such as suspensions, or it could restart the administrative proceedings. The settlement did not require the firms to admit to any violation of law and preserves the firms' legal defenses in the event the administrative proceeding is restarted.
If the SEC restarts the administrative proceedings, depending upon the final outcome, listed companies in the United States with major PRC operations may find it difficult or impossible to retain auditors in respect of their operations in the PRC, which could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, including possible delisting. In December 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement on regulatory access to audit and other information internationally that cites the ongoing challenges faced by them in overseeing the financial reporting of companies listed in the United States with operations in China, the absence of satisfactory progress in discussions on these issues with Chinese authorities and the potential for remedial action if significant information barriers persist. In a statement issued on December 9, 2019, the SEC reiterated concerns over the inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of the audit firm work papers with respect to U.S.-listed companies that have operations in China, and emphasized the importance of audit quality in emerging markets, such as China. On April 21, 2020, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a new joint statement, reminding the investors that in many emerging markets, including China, there is substantially greater risk that disclosures will be incomplete or misleading and, in the event of investor harm, substantially less access to recourse, in comparison to U.S. domestic companies, and stressing again the PCAOB's inability to inspect audit work papers in China and its potential harm to investors. On June 4, 2020, the U.S. President issued a memorandum ordering the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, or the PWG, to submit a report within 60 days of the memorandum that includes recommendations for actions that can be taken by the executive branch, including the SEC and the PCAOB, on Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges and their audit firms. On August 6, 2020, the PWG released the report. In particular, with respect to jurisdictions that do not grant the PCAOB sufficient access to fulfill its statutory mandate, or NCJs, the PWG recommended that enhanced listing standards be applied to companies from NCJs for seeking initial listing and remaining listed on U.S. stock exchanges. The report recommended a transition period until January 1, 2022, before the new listing standards would apply to companies already listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Whit it is uncertain whether the PWG recommendations will be adopted, in whole or in part, and the impact of any such new rules on us cannot be estimated at this time, if we are unable to meet the enhanced listing standards before their effectiveness, we could face de-listing from the New York Stock Exchange, deregistration from the SEC and/or other risks, which may materially and adversely affect the market price and liquidity of our ADSs or effectively terminate our ADS trading in the United States.
As part of a continued regulatory focus in the United States on access to audit and other information currently protected by national law, in particular China's, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, or the HFCA Act, was signed into law by the former President of the United States in December 2020. The HFCA Act requires the SEC to prohibit U.S. trading of securities of foreign companies if such a company retains a foreign accounting firm that cannot be inspected by the PCAOB for three consecutive years, the first of which can be 2021. The HFCA Act also requires companies on the list to certify that they are not owned or controlled by a foreign government and make certain additional disclosures in their SEC filings, including disclosure of whether governmental entities in the applicable non-U.S. jurisdiction have a controlling financial interest in the issuer, the names of Chinese Communist Party members on the issuer or the issuer's operating entity's board of directors and whether the issuer's articles contain a charter of the Chinese Communist Party. On March 24, the SEC adopted interim final amendments, which will become effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, to implement congressionally mandated submission and disclosure requirements of the HFCA Act. The interim final amendments will apply to registrants that the SEC identifies as having filed an annual report with an audit report issued by a registered public accounting firm that is located in a foreign jurisdiction and that the PCAOB has determined it is unable to inspect or investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in that jurisdiction. Before any registrant will be required to comply with the interim final amendments, the SEC must implement a process for identifying such registrants. As of the date of the annual report, the SEC is seeking public comment on this identification process. Consistent with the HFCA Act, the amendments will require any identified registrant to submit documentation to the SEC establishing that the registrant is not owned or controlled by a government entity in that jurisdiction, and will also require disclosure in a foreign issuer's annual report regarding the audit arrangements of, and government influence on, such registrant. As of the date of this annual report, the SEC is seeking public comment on these submission and disclosure requirements.
Future developments in respect of the issues discussed above are uncertain, including the legislative developments are subject to the legislative process and the regulatory developments are subject to the rule-making process and other administrative procedures. If any of the administrative proceedings, legislative actions or regulatory changes discussed above were to proceed in ways that are detrimental to China-based issuers, and if our independent registered public accounting firm was denied, even temporarily, the ability to practice before the SEC and we were unable to timely find another registered public accounting firm to audit and issue an opinion on our financial statements, it could cause us to fail to be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act. Such a determination could ultimately lead to the delisting of the ADSs from the New York Stock Exchange or deregistration from the SEC, or both, which would substantially reduce or effectively terminate the trading of the ADSs in the United States. Any of these actions, or uncertainties in the market about the possibility of such actions, could adversely affect our access to the U.S. capital markets and the price of our ADSs and ordinary shares.