Legal issues related to anti-corruption in Asian Countries: The case of US companies in China

The purpose of this contribution is first to briefly illustrate the international legal instruments in force aimed at the prevention and suppression of corruption, focusing on the number of ratification of international conventions in the field by Asian Countries. Second, we will turn to a specific case of corruption that involved a United States (US) company, Avon Products Inc., and its subsidiary in China. Wewill reflect on the extraterritorial reach of US law and on the anti-corruption measures in China, bearing in mind the traditional phenomenon of guanxi. The contribution will demonstrate that international cooperation is an essential tool in the fight against corruption, combined with the commitment by countries to counter a threat to market stability and to the society taken as a whole.