Pompeo Urges Global Stock Exchanges to Tighten Listing Rules for Chinese Companies

Dozens of Louisville Officers Walk out on Mayor Amid Protests

Dozens of officers in Louisville, Kentucky, appeared to walk out on the mayor on Wednesday as he tried to address them, according to video footage of the incident. Fraternal Order of Police President Ryan Nichols, who was not in attendance, confirmed the walkout. He said that police are frustrated with Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat, while they have been responding to protests, riots, and looting since last week. “They feel completely unsupported and disrespected by this administration,” Nichols said, according to the Courier-Journal, which obtained the video of the walkout. “They feel whatever he was going to say would have been nothing more than lip service, and he does not care about them at all.” The video footage showed Fischer trying to address the police department as officers and detectives…

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on June 4 applauded a move by Nasdaq to tighten listing rules for Chinese companies amid growing calls for U.S.-listed Chinese firms to be subject to the same accounting standards as American businesses.

“American investors should not be subjected to hidden and undue risks associated with companies that do not abide by the same rules as U.S. firms,” Pompeo said in a statement.

Nasdaq recently proposed new restrictions on initial public offerings that, if approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), would make it harder for some Chinese companies to debut on the stock exchange.

The new rules include greater scrutiny of the audit firms that examine overseas companies it lists. Beijing currently prevents the SEC and its accounting oversight arm, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, from inspecting audits of Chinese companies, citing “state secrecy.”

Pompeo said the action was “particularly important given a pattern of fraudulent accounting practices in China-based companies.” He added that Nasdaq’s effort should serve as a model for all other exchanges around the world.

Nasdaq in May moved to delist Luckin Coffee, after the Chinese beverage brand discovered that its senior managers had falsified 2019 sales by about $310 million.

President Donald Trump on May 29 announced that a presidential working group on financial markets would be looking into the “differing practices of Chinese companies listed on the U.S. financial markets, with the goal of protecting American investors.”

The announcement was part of a series of measures to address threats posed by Beijing, including the revocation of Hong Kong’s special trading status with the United States, following Beijing’s recent move to tighten its grip on Hong Kong by imposing a national security law for the city.

In May, the Senate passed a bill that would require U.S.-listed Chinese companies to comply with U.S. auditing and reporting standards or face delisting. The bill has yet to be passed in the House of Representatives.

Also in May, the administration directed the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board—the independent body that oversees the pension fund for federal employees and military members—to halt plans to invest in stocks of Chinese companies that pose national security and human rights concerns.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Focus News: Pompeo Urges Global Stock Exchanges to Tighten Listing Rules for Chinese Companies

Journalists Demand Police to Stop Attacks Against Press at George Floyd Protests

Journalists are urging state and law enforcement leaders to stop attacks on the press following a series of reports that journalists have been shot at, pepper-sprayed, manhandled, and arrested while covering the George Floyd protests. Reporter groups and individual journalists are taking action to demand police officers to stop targeting members of the press, who are credentialed and identifiable, and to hold officers accountable for any alleged misconduct. One reporter, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, has taken his fight to a federal court by filing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the “extraordinary escalation of unlawful force deliberately targeting reporters” by police officers violates the U.S. Constitution. “It violates the sacrosanct right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press that form the linchpin of a free society.…