‘Big Four’ Accounting Firms Still Favored by Some China State Firms

The “Big Four” global accounting brands remain the preferred choice of some major Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for their auditing work, but the government’s data security concerns could give homegrown rivals a chance to gain more market share.

Among the big SOEs is insurance giant China Taiping Insurance Group Ltd., which announced on Feb. 16 that PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP (PwC China) had won a five-year audit contract with the company.