I used to be an auditor so I’ll chime in here. The US always had access to financial records. However, the US wants the audit workpapers. Audit workpapers include company source documents which is what China absolutely needs to protect. So for example, when auditing accounts receivables, auditors typically request customer lists. To audit accounts payable auditors request vendor and supplier lists.
So now imagine the US gets its hands on Alibaba or Tencents vendor lists it will know the identity of every tech supplier in China. Given how the US wants to sanction them, China would be handing the US a hitlist. So I’d rather see not a single Chinese company listed abroad than hand over any audit workpapers.
Wow that's actually worst than I thought. In my mind auditors were always about financials, but the way you are describing it here, this is much more than that
China needs to absolutely ban any Chinese company which aims to list in the US. Furthermore, China needs to go beyond just banning new listings
It should ban any existing Chinese companies who are already listed in America
And further down the line, it should ban any company operating on its market, from also being listed in the US. This also includes foreign companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Tesla etc. This is an unacceptable amount of information that the CIA will have access to
Presented with such a threat, the companies themselves will lobby their Gov to stop from doing that.