Wiley International Trends in Financial Reporting under IFRS: Including Comparisons with US GAAP, Chinese GAAP, and Indian GAAP

APPENDIX E

COMPARISON OF IFRS WITH CHINA GAAP

The term China generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) refers to Chinese Accounting Standards (CASs) issued by the Accounting Regulatory Department of the Chinese Ministry of Finance (MoF), which is the sole authority that sets accounting standards in China.1 The CASs for enterprises mainly consists of two sets of accounting standards: the Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises (ASBEs) and the Accounting Standards for Small-Sized Business Enterprises (ASSBEs).2

The ASBEs are the Chinese counterpart of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS); the ASSBEs are the counterpart of IFRS for SMEs. The ASBEs enjoy an increasingly wide application since their issuance in 2006. Currently, the ASBEs are compulsorily applied by all companies listed in mainland China, all Chinese financial institutions, and all large-size state-owned enterprises. More and more other enterprises are adopting the ASBEs on a compulsory or voluntary basis. Due to the wide application of the ASBEs, the acronym of CASs is officially used to refer to the ASBEs.

The ASBEs consist of one Basic Standard, 38 Specific Standards, and related Application Guidance. The Basic Standard that plays the role of the Chinese conceptual framework for financial reporting applies to all enterprises established in mainland China. All 38 Specific Standards and related Application Guidance are subject to the Basic Standard. Since their issuance in 2006, the ASBEs have ...