In addition to being subject to China's corruption laws, U.S. companies and their employees are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which prohibits U.S. companies from making corrupt payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. The FCPA's legislative history describes that the illegal payments ran the gamut "from bribery of high foreign officials in order to secure some type of favorable action by a foreign government to so-called facilitating payments that allegedly were made to ensure that government functionaries discharged certain ministerial or clerical duties." The FCPA was enacted by Congress to stop the ongoing practice of bribing foreign officials and to restore public confidence in the American Business system.
