Beijing's latest measure to localise the mainland operations of the Big Four accounting firms have been welcomed by several of the firms and the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA).
The new rules will dilute the control that Hong Kong and foreign accountants exert over the firms' mainland operations.
The Ministry of Finance yesterday released new regulations for Sino-foreign accountancy joint ventures.
The only such joint ventures on the mainland are those of Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
One of the new rules is that within three years the top management in the mainland joint ventures must be Chinese nationals with Chinese accountancy qualifications and have at least eight years of accounting experience on the mainland.
If the top management fails to meet the criteria, they must be replaced with Chinese nationals.