Australian Journal of Asian Law

Abstract from Volume 9 No 1 (2007)

Minority Shareholder Protection in China’s Top 100 Listed Companies

Roman Tomasic is Research Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, and Associate, Centre for Inter­national Corporate Governance Research, Victoria University.
Neil Andrews is Professor of Law, School of Law and Deputy Director, Centre for International Cor­porate Governance Research, Victoria University.
This article is part of a larger study undertaken with support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) under an ARC Discovery Grant. The team undertaking the research was led by Roman Tomasic and Neil Andrews from Victoria University and Jane Fu from Deakin University. Significant support for the project was also provided by project research officers Jenny Jian Rong Fu, Wusheng Zhang and Chenxia Shi, as well as by Xinting Jia of the Centre for International Corporate Governance Research.

It has been argued that the legal environment for the protection of minority shareholders is important in determining the strength of a country’s capital markets. In China, the protection of minority shareholders is officially regarded as a major regulatory objective, especially as regards Chinese stock exchange listed companies. In practice, the position of minority share­holders in these companies is not well protected, suggesting that economic development and investment in listed companies do not fit neatly with expectations created by leading law and development theorists. This article reports on findings from an empirically based study of corporate governance in China’s top 100 listed companies that examined a broad range of corporate governance issues, including the problem of minority shareholder protection. Major challenges to achieving better protection for minority shareholders in large Chinese companies emerged from this research.

(2007) 9(1) Asian Law 88-119