China proposes auditors undergo cybersecurity checks if national security involved

BEIJING (Reuters) -China's finance ministry has proposed that auditors undergo or conduct additional cybersecurity checks when their work involves national security.

The new draft measures, which were made public on Friday, also lay out how accounting firms should manage data that relate Chinese firms.

Over the past two years, China's cybersecurity authority has established policies that outline how all businesses in the country should handle and implement security assessments and checks.

The new draft measures apply specifically to auditors that have been hired by domestic firms or are conducting cross-border work. The chief partner of an auditing firm is the person responsible for data security, the draft rules also said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, KPMG and EY - the world's Big Four auditing firms - did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

(Reporting by Albee Zhang, Brenda Goh, Ziyi Tang, Kaiwen Xu and Selena Li; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)