Understanding Chinese Corporate Governance

In a complex political and environmental global landscape, it has never been more critical for global organizations to understand the past, present, and future of Chinese corporate governance: this book is the key. Leveraging her dual-cultural background and using a board-level practitioner’s lens, Lyndsey Zhang offers insights that will help the global business community better understand Chinese companies’ corporate governance practices and economic development journeys, shorten the learning curve for global business leaders and investors, and explore different economic models that better suit emerging markets. She addresses important questions such as:

• How does the Chinese government manage to retain its controlling position in Chinese companies while still making them attractive to global investors?

• What are the drivers for Chinese companies’ future corporate governance improvement?

• What is China’s position on the worldwide ESG and climate change movements?

• How can global practitioners feel less like "navigating in the dark" when working with Chinese companies?

This book will be an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to understand the rapidly changing world of Chinese corporate governance, including global investors, senior executives in multinational corporations, consultants, financial and political policymakers, business and law students, and researchers.

Lyndsey Zhang has extensive corporate experience working with Western and Chinese multinational companies in the automation manufacturing, clean and renewable energies, and solar technology sectors. In CFO and VP of Strategy positions with Chinese companies, and on boards of directors, she directed global expansion projects, fundraised on Hong Kong’s stock exchange, managed cross-border mergers and acquisitions in European countries, and developed post-acquisition strategies for US-based corporations. A popular speaker and podcaster, Lyndsey is an Illinois-licensed CPA and holds an Independent Board Director certificate from Harvard University, as well as an MS in accountancy from Illinois State University and a BS in economics from Xiamen University. She is a postdoctoral researcher at Henley Business School, University of Reading, specializing in corporate governance, sustainability, and management and organization theory. In Fall 2025 she will join DePaul University as a lecturer in their MS in Sustainability Management and Strategy program.