Article 201 Where any initiator or shareholder
unlawfully take away its capital contribution after the company is established,
he shall be ordered by the company registration authority to make corrections,
and shall be fined not less than 5% but not more than 15% of the capital
contribution he has unlawfully taken away.
Article 202 Any company which has established another
account books apart from the legally prescribed account books and violates of
the present Law shall be ordered by the treasury department of the people's
government at the county level or above to make corrections, and shall be fined
not less than 50,000 Yuan but not more than 500, 000 Yuan.
Article 203 Where a company makes any false records or
conceals any important fact in such materials as financial and accounting
statements submitted to the relevant departments in charge, the relevant
department in charge shall impose a fine of not more than 30, 000 Yuan but not
more than 300, 000 Yuan upon the directly liable persons in charge and other
directly liable persons.
Article 204 Where a company fails to draw legal
accumulation funds according to the present Law, it shall be ordered by the
treasury department of the people's government at the county level or above to
make up the amount it is due, and may be fined up to 200, 000 Yuan.
Article 205 Where any company fails to inform its
creditors by notice or by public announcement during the process of merger,
split, reducing its registered capital or liquidation, it shall be ordered by
the company registration authority to make corrections, and may be fined not
less than 10, 000 Yuan but not more than 100, 000 Yuan.
Where, during the process of liquidation, any company hides
any of its properties or makes any false record in its balance sheet or property
checklist, or distributes any of the company's properties before clearing off
its debts, it shall be ordered by the company registration authority to make
corrections, and may be fined not less than 5% but not more than 10% of the
value of the company properties it has hidden or distributed prior to the
clearing of company debts, and the directly liable person-in-charge as well
other directly liable persons may be fined not less than 10, 000 Yuan but not
more than100, 000 Yuan.
Article 206 Where, during the process of liquidation,
any company undertakes any business activity which has nothing to do with the
liquidation, it shall be admonished by the company registration authority, and
its illegal proceeds shall be confiscated.
Article 207 Where the liquidation group fails to submit
a liquidation report to the company registration authority according to the
provisions of the present Law, or where any important fact is concealed or there
is any important omission in the liquidation report it submits, it shall be
ordered by the company registration authority to make corrections.
Where any member of the liquidation group takes
advantage of his power to seek unlawful benefits for himself or any of his
relatives, procures any unlawful gains or misappropriates any of the properties
of the company, he shall be ordered by the company registration authority to
return the properties of the company with his illegal gains being confiscated,
and shall be fined 1 up to 5 times of the illegal proceeds.
Article 208 Where any institution that undertakes the
evaluation or verification of assets or the verification of certificates
provides any false materials, its illegal proceeds shall be confiscated by the
company registration authority, and be fined 1 up to 5 times of the illegal
proceeds, and may be ordered by the competent administrative department to
suspend its business operation or to withdraw the qualification certificates of
the directly liable persons, and cancel its business license.
Where any institution that undertakes the evaluation or
verification of assets or the verification of certificates makes any important
omission in the report it submits, it shall be ordered by the company
registration authority to make corrections; if the circumstances are serious, it
shall be fined 1 up to 5 times of the proceeds it has obtained, and may be
ordered by the competent administrative department to suspend its business
operation and to withdraw the qualification certificates of the directly liable
persons, and cancel its business license. Where the evaluation result or proof
of asset verification or certificate verification, as provided by any
institution that undertakes the evaluation or verification of assets or the
verification of certificates, is proved to be untrue, which has caused any loss
to the creditors of the company, it shall bear the compensation liabilities
within the sum which is found to be untrue, unless it can prove that it has no
fault in the incurrence of the loss.
Article 209 Where any company registration authority
registers any application that does not meet the conditions as provided for in
the present Law, or fails to register any application that meets the conditions
as prescribed in the present Law, the directly liable person-in-charge and other
directly liable persons shall be imposed upon an administrative sanction.
Article 210 Where the superior organ of any company
registration authority forces the latter to register any application that does
not satisfy the conditions as prescribed in the present Law or to refuse any
application that meets the conditions as provided for in the present Law, or
covers up for any illegal registration, the directly liable person-in-charge and
other directly liable persons shall be imposed upon an administrative sanction
according to law.
Article 211 Where anyone fails to register as a limited
liability company or joint stock limited company according to law but undertakes
business operation in the name of a limited liability company or joint stock
limited company, or fails to register as a subsidiary of a limited liability
company or joint stock limited company according to law but undertakes business
operation in the name of a subsidiary of the limited liability company or joint
stock limited company, it shall be ordered by the company registration authority
to make corrections or be clamped down on, and may be fined not more than
100,000 Yuan.
Article 212 Where any company fails to start its
business operation six months after the establishment of it without justifiable
reasons, or suspends its business operation on its own initiative for
consecutively six months after it has started the business operation, its
business license may be revoked by the company registration authority.
Where any registered item of any company changes, and the
company fails to go through the corresponding modification formalities according
to the present Law, it shall be ordered by the company registration authority to
make modification registration within a time limit; if it still fails to make
the registration, it shall be fined not less than 10, 000 Yuan but not more than
100, 000 Yuan.
Article 213 Where any foreign company violates this Law
by unlawfully establishing any branch within China, it shall be ordered by the
company registration authority to make corrections or to close it down, and may
be fined not less than 50,000 Yuan but not more than 200, 000 Yuan.
Article 214 Where anyone commits, in the name of a
company, any serious violation of law so that the security of the state or the
public interests of the society is injured, the business license of the company
shall be revoked.
Article 215 Where a company violates any provision of
this Law, it shall bear the corresponding civil liabilities of compensation, and
shall pay the corresponding fines and pecuniary penalties; if the property
thereof is not enough to pay for the compensation, it shall bear the civil
liabilities first.
Article 216 Where any company violates the present Law
and any crime is constituted, it shall be subject to criminal liabilities.
Chapter XIII Supplementary
Provisions
Article 217 Definitions of the following terms:
(1) The "senior manager" refers to the manager, vice
manager, person in charge of finance of a company, and the secretary of the
board of directors of a listed company as well as any other person as stimulated
in the articles of association.
(2) The
"controlling shareholder" refers to a shareholder whose capital contribution
occupies 5% or more of the total capital of a limited liability company, or a
shareholder whose stocks occupy more than 50% of the total equity stocks of a
joint stock limited company, or a shareholder whose capital contribution or
proportion of stocks is less than 50% but who enjoys a voting right according to
its capital contribution or the stocks it holds is large enough to impose an big
impact upon the resolution of the shareholders' meeting or the shareholders'
assembly.
(3) The "actual controller" refers to
anyone who is not a shareholder but is able to hold actual control of the acts
of the company by means of investment relations, agreements or any other
arrangements.
(4) The "connection relationship" refers to the
relationship between the controlling shareholder, actual controller, director,
supervisor, or senior manager of a company and the enterprise directly or
indirectly controlled thereby, and any other relationship that may lead to the
transfer of any interests of the company. However, the enterprises controlled by
the state do not incur a connection relationship simply because their shares are
controlled by the state.
Article 218 The limited liability companies and joint
stock limited companies invested by foreign investors shall be governed by the
present Law. Where there are otherwise different provisions in any law regarding
foreign investment, such provisions shall prevail.
Article 219 This Law shall go into effect on January 1,
2006.
Promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress on 2005-10-27
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