How the delisting of Chinese firms on American exchanges might play out

THESE DAYS politicians in Beijing and Washington seem to agree on very little. Yet on the subject of ending the listing of Chinese firms on American exchanges they are in uncommon harmony. The collapse last year of Luckin Coffee, a Chinese beverage-delivery group listed on the Nasdaq that was caught inflating its sales, reignited political grievances in America. The result was the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which requires companies traded on American exchanges to submit to audits or face delisting within three years. The precise rules are still being drawn up, but will probably eventually involve a great shedding of shares.China, for its part, seems happy for its companies to leave American markets. Its regulators seemed unbothered when their actions demolished the share price of Didi Global, a Chinese ride-hailing company, just days after it listed in New York. New rules from the country’s cyberspace watchdog will make it harder for some firms to list outside of China. A sudden rule change in late July made online-tutoring firms serving school-aged children ineligible for overseas listings, wiping billions of dollars from several New York-traded Chinese stocks.