Pelosi says House is looking at bill that could delist some Chinese companies from US stock exchanges

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House is taking a look at a bipartisan Senate-passed bill that could result in barring some Chinese companies from listing shares on U.S. stock exchanges.

“We’ll review it in the House. I’ve asked my committees to take a look at what it is,” Pelosi said during an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The Senate passed legislation by unanimous consent on Wednesday that would require public companies to disclose whether they are owned or controlled by a foreign government and submit to audits that can be reviewed by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Under the bill authored by Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a company that doesn’t comply with the oversight board’s audits for three consecutive years would be banned from being listed on U.S. exchanges. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) has introduced companion legislation in the House.

Passage of the legislation comes amid high tensions between the U.S. and China, particularly over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic that first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since resulted in more than 5 million cases worldwide as of Thursday.

“We have to have a relationship with China and we judge every action as to what it means to us, as well as what it means to them. So I look forward to seeing that. It’s interesting that it had such unanimous support, though, in the Senate,” Pelosi said.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Fox Business this week that “we have to” push for more accountability from Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges.

“We have learned that Chinese companies are not transparent, they do not meet the norms, the regulations, the usual blue sky laws,” Kudlow said. “A lot of these companies, by the way, have already had scandals and cost investors a lot of money because of their failure to be transparent in their reporting.”

The Senate also passed legislation by unanimous consent last week to impose sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims.

President Trump and his GOP allies in Congress have been trying to shift the blame to China for failing to prevent the global coronavirus pandemic amid criticism over the administration’s initial response.

Trump tweeted late Wednesday night that China is engaging in a “massive disinformation campaign” because it wants presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to defeat him in November’s election.

“China is on a massive disinformation campaign because they are desperate to have Sleepy Joe Biden win the presidential race so they can continue to rip-off the United States, as they have done for decades, until I came along!” he tweeted.