Navigating Compliance in a Geopolitical Era: The Case of Chinese Multinationals in the United States

This Article examines how Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) approach compliance in the United States amid deepening geo-political rivalry and intensified regulatory scrutiny. Drawing on original survey data, this Article maps variations in compliance structures, staffing, and governance mechanisms across Chinese firms and identifies key determinants such as industry-specific regulatory intensity, listing status, and organizational imprinting from headquarters. The analysis employs a dual institutional framework to explain how compliance systems emerge from the interplay between host-state regulatory demands and home-state institutional legacies, producing hybrid structures that blend local adaptation with headquarters-driven replication. Findings reveal that while certain compliance features—such as committee formation—are shaped primarily by U.S. regulatory pressure—others, such as joint legal-compliance departments, reflect Chinese organizational templates.

Di-vergence between home and host institutions leaves Chinese MNCs with persistent gaps in areas such as training, specialized risk controls, and regulator engagement. The study contributes to corporate compliance scholarship by extending analysis to a transnational business context; to the literature on law and geopolitics by showing how MNCs navigate the legal and regulatory dimensions of great power rivalry; and to Global China studies by revealing how Chinese businesses cope with complex institutional pressures in sophisticated foreign markets.