New office set up to audit China's overseas assets: state media

BEIJING: China aims to prevent embezzlement of its overseas assets with an office whose mission will be to watch over 100 billion yuan (15 billion dollars) of state funds abroad, official media said Thursday.

The country's National Audit Office established the new department to supervise the financing of overseas units of government agencies, and audit state-owned companies, media said.

The department will also audit firms in which the state has a majority shareholding and financial institutions, the report said.

Auditing of overseas assets had been weak before the establishment of the new department, an unnamed official with the National Audit Office said.

Many state assets have gone missing due to the government's failure to get an overall picture of the country's state-owned assets abroad, the paper quoted Chen Changzhi, former vice minister of supervision, as saying earlier.
The unrestrained power of officials in these businesses was also a problem, according to Chen.