China SXT Pharmaceuticals (SXTC) Risk Analysis

As an auditor of companies that are registered with the SEC and publicly traded in the United States and a firm registered with the PCAOB, our auditor is required under the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB to assess their compliance with the laws of the United States and professional standards. Although we operate through the VIE and its subsidiaries substantially in mainland China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese government authorities, our auditor, the independent registered public accounting firm that issues the audit report included elsewhere in this annual report, is subject to laws in the United States pursuant to which the PCAOB conducts regular inspections to assess our auditor's compliance with the applicable professional standards. Inspections of other auditors conducted by the PCAOB outside mainland China have at times identified deficiencies in those auditors' audit procedures and quality control procedures, which may be addressed as part of the inspection process to improve future audit quality. The lack of PCAOB inspections of audit work undertaken in mainland China prevents the PCAOB from regularly evaluating auditors' audits and their quality control procedures. As a result, if there is any component of our auditor's work papers become located in mainland China in the future, such work papers will not be subject to inspection by the PCAOB. As a result, investors would be deprived of such PCAOB inspections, which could result in limitations or restrictions to our access of the U.S. capital markets. As part of a continued regulatory focus in the United States on access to audit and other information currently protected by national law, in particular mainland China's, in June 2019, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced bills in both houses of the U.S. Congress which, if passed, would require the SEC to maintain a list of issuers for which PCAOB is not able to inspect or investigate the audit work performed by a foreign public accounting firm completely. The proposed Ensuring Quality Information and Transparency for Abroad-Based Listings on our Exchanges Act prescribes increased disclosure requirements for these issuers and, beginning in 2025, the delisting from U.S. national securities exchanges such as Nasdaq of issuers included on the SEC's list for three consecutive years. It is unclear if this proposed legislation will be enacted. Furthermore, there have been recent deliberations within the U.S. government regarding potentially limiting or restricting China-based companies from accessing U.S. capital markets. On May 20, 2020, the U.S. Senate passed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (the "HFCA Act"), which includes requirements for the SEC to identify issuers whose audit work is performed by auditors that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely because of a restriction imposed by a non-U.S. authority in the auditor's local jurisdiction. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the HFCA Act on December 2, 2020, and the HFCA Act was signed into law on December 18, 2020. Additionally, in July 2020, the U.S. President's Working Group on Financial Markets issued recommendations for actions that can be taken by the executive branch, the SEC, the PCAOB or other federal agencies and department with respect to Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges and their audit firms, in an effort to protect investors in the United States. In response, on November 23, 2020, the SEC issued guidance highlighting certain risks (and their implications to U.S. investors) associated with investments in China-based issuers and summarizing enhanced disclosures the SEC recommends China-based issuers make regarding such risks. On March 24, 2021, the SEC adopted interim final rules relating to the implementation of certain disclosure and documentation requirements of the HFCA Act. We will be required to comply with these rules if the SEC identifies us as having a "non-inspection" year (as defined in the interim final rules) under a process to be subsequently established by the SEC. The SEC is assessing how to implement other requirements of the HFCA Act, including the listing and trading prohibition requirements described above. Under the HFCA Act, our securities may be prohibited from trading on Nasdaq or other U.S. stock exchanges if our auditor is not inspected by the PCAOB for three consecutive years, and this ultimately could result in our Ordinary Shares being delisted. Furthermore, on June 22, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed the Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (the "Accelerating HFCA Act"), which, if enacted, would amend the HFCA Act and require the SEC to prohibit an issuer's securities from trading on any U.S. stock exchanges if its auditor is not subject to PCAOB inspections for two consecutive years instead of three. On September 22, 2021, the PCAOB adopted a final rule implementing the Accelerating HFCA Act, which provides a framework for the PCAOB to use when determining, as contemplated under the Accelerating HFCA Act, whether the Board is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms located in a foreign jurisdiction because of a position taken by one or more authorities in that jurisdiction. On November 5, 2021, the SEC approved the PCAOB's Rule 6100, Board Determinations Under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. On December 2, 2021, the SEC issued amendments to finalize rules implementing the submission and disclosure requirements in the HFCA Act. The rules apply to registrants that the SEC identifies as having filed an annual report with an audit report issued by a registered public accounting firm that is located in a foreign jurisdiction and that PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in foreign jurisdictions. On December 16, 2021, the PCAOB issued a Determination Report which found that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms headquartered in: (1) mainland China of the PRC, and (2) Hong Kong. In addition, the PCAOB's report identified the specific registered public accounting firms which are subject to these determinations. On December 29, 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, was signed into law by President Biden. The Consolidated Appropriations Act contained, among other things, an identical provision to the Accelerating HFCA Act, which reduce the number of consecutive non-inspection years required for triggering the prohibitions under the HFCA Act from three years to two. Our auditor, ZH CPA, LLC, is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, not mainland China or Hong Kong and was not identified in this report as a firm subject to the PCAOB's determination. Therefore, our auditor is not currently subject to the determinations announced by the PCAOB on December 16, 2021, and it is currently subject to the PCAOB inspections. While our auditor is based in the U.S. and is registered with the PCAOB and has been inspected by the PCAOB on a regular basis, in the event it is later determined that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely our auditor because of a position taken by an authority in a foreign jurisdiction, then such lack of inspection could cause trading in the our securities to be prohibited under the HFCA Act, and ultimately result in a determination by a securities exchange to delist our securities. In addition, the recent developments would add uncertainties to the listing and trading of our Ordinary Shares and we cannot assure you whether Nasdaq or regulatory authorities would apply additional and more stringent criteria to us after considering the effectiveness of our auditor's audit procedures and quality control procedures, adequacy of personnel and training, or sufficiency of resources, geographic reach or experience as it relates to the audit of our financial statements. It remains unclear what the SEC's implementation process related to the above rules will entail or what further actions the SEC, the PCAOB or Nasdaq will take to address these issues and what impact those actions will have on U.S. companies that have significant operations in the PRC and have securities listed on a U.S. stock exchange (including a national securities exchange or over-the-counter stock market). In addition, the above amendments and any additional actions, proceedings, or new rules resulting from these efforts to increase U.S. regulatory access to audit information could create some uncertainty for investors, the market price of our Ordinary Shares could be adversely affected, and we could be delisted if we and our auditor are unable to meet the PCAOB inspection requirement or being required to engage a new audit firm, which would require significant expense and management time. On August 26, 2022, the PCAOB signed a Statement of Protocol (the "SOP") Agreements with the CSRC and China's Ministry of Finance (the "MOF"). The SOP Agreement, together with two protocol agreements (collectively, "SOP Agreements"), governs inspections and investigations of audit firms based in mainland China and Hong Kong, taking the first step toward opening access for the PCAOB to inspect and investigate registered public accounting firms headquartered in mainland China and Hong Kong. Pursuant to the fact sheet with respect to the Protocol disclosed by the SEC, the PCAOB shall have independent discretion to select any issuer audits for inspection or investigation and has the unfettered ability to transfer information to the SEC. On December 15, 2022, the PCAOB Board determined that the PCAOB was able to secure complete access to inspect and investigate registered public accounting firms headquartered in mainland China and Hong Kong and voted to vacate its previous determinations to the contrary. However, should PRC authorities obstruct or otherwise fail to facilitate the PCAOB's access in the future, the PCAOB Board will consider the need to issue a new determination. Delisting of our Ordinary Shares would force holders of our Ordinary Shares to sell their Ordinary Shares. The market price of our Ordinary Shares could be adversely affected as a result of anticipated negative impacts of these executive or legislative actions upon, as well as negative investor sentiment towards, companies with significant operations in China that are listed in the United States, regardless of whether these executive or legislative actions are implemented and regardless of our actual operating performance.

The equity interests of Taizhou Suxuantang are held by Mr. Feng Zhou, who is our founder, director. His interests may differ from the interests of our Company as a whole. He may breach, or cause Taizhou Suxuantang to breach, or refuse to renew the existing contractual arrangements we have with Taizhou Suxuantang, which would have a material adverse effect on our ability to effectively control Taizhou Suxuantang and receive economic benefits from them. For example, the shareholders may be able to cause our agreements with Taizhou Suxuantang to be performed in a manner adverse to us by, among other things, failing to remit payments due under the contractual arrangements to us on a timely basis. We cannot assure you that when conflicts of interest arise, any or all of these shareholders will act in the best interests of our Company or such conflicts will be resolved in our favor. Currently, we do not have any arrangements to address potential conflicts of interest between these shareholders and our Company, except that we could exercise our purchase option under the exclusive option agreement with these shareholders to request them to transfer all of their equity interests in Taizhou Suxuantang to a PRC entity or individual designated by us, to the extent permitted by PRC laws. If we cannot resolve any conflict of interest or dispute between us and the shareholders of Taizhou Suxuantang, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which could result in the disruption of our business and subject us to substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

Pursuant to the contractual arrangements, WFOE has the exclusive right to purchase all or any part of the equity interests in Taizhou Suxuantang from Taizhou Suxuantang's shareholders for a nominal price, unless the relevant government authorities or then applicable PRC laws request that a minimum price amount be used as the purchase price, in such case the purchase price shall be the lowest amount under such request. The shareholders of Taizhou Suxuantang will be subject to PRC individual income tax on the difference between the equity transfer price and the then current registered capital of Taizhou Suxuantang. Additionally, if such a transfer takes place, the competent tax authority may require WFOE to pay enterprise income tax for ownership transfer income with reference to the market value, in which case the amount of tax could be substantial.

Our ordinary shares may be "thinly-traded", meaning that the number of persons interested in purchasing our ordinary shares at or near bid prices at any given time may be relatively small or non-existent. This situation may be attributable to a number of factors, including the fact that we are relatively unknown to stock analysts, stock brokers, institutional investors and others in the investment community that generate or influence sales volume, and that even if we came to the attention of such persons, they tend to be risk-averse and might be reluctant to follow an unproven company such as ours or purchase or recommend the purchase of our shares until such time as we became more seasoned. As a consequence, there may be periods of several days or more when trading activity in our shares is minimal or non-existent, as compared to a seasoned issuer which has a large and steady volume of trading activity that will generally support continuous sales without an adverse effect on share price. Broad or active public trading market for our ordinary shares may not develop or be sustained.

The market price for our Ordinary Shares may be volatile and subject to wide fluctuations due to factors such as: - the perception of U.S. investors and regulators of U.S. listed Chinese companies;- our operating and financial performance;- quarterly variations in the rate of growth of our financial indicators, such as net income per share, net income and revenues;- the public reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements and our filings with the SEC;- strategic actions by our competitors;- changes in revenue or earnings estimates, or changes in recommendations or withdrawal of research coverage, by equity research analysts;- speculation in the press or investment community;- the failure of research analysts to cover our Ordinary Shares;- sales of our Ordinary Shares by us or other shareholders, or the perception that such sales may occur;- changes in accounting principles, policies, guidance, interpretations or standards;- additions or departures of key management personnel;- actions by our shareholders;- domestic and international economic, legal and regulatory factors unrelated to our performance; and - the realization of any risks described under this "Risk Factors" section. The stock markets in general have experienced extreme volatility that has often been unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our Ordinary Shares. Securities class action litigation has often been instituted against companies following periods of volatility in the overall market and in the market price of a company's securities. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could result in very substantial costs, divert our management's attention and resources and harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

In April 2012, President Obama signed into law the JOBS Act. We are classified as an "emerging growth company" under the JOBS Act. For as long as we are an emerging growth company, which may be up to five full fiscal years, unlike other public companies, we will not be required to, among other things, (i) provide an auditor's attestation report on management's assessment of the effectiveness of our system of internal control over financial reporting pursuant to Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, (ii) comply with any new requirements adopted by the PCAOB requiring mandatory audit firm rotation or a supplement to the auditor's report in which the auditor would be required to provide additional information about the audit and the financial statements of the issuer, (iii) provide certain disclosure regarding executive compensation required of larger public companies or (iv) hold nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation. We will remain an emerging growth company for up to five years, although we will lose that status sooner if we have more than $1.235 billion of revenues in a fiscal year, have more than $700 million in market value of our Ordinary Shares held by non-affiliates, or issue more than $1.0 billion of non-convertible debt over a three-year period. To the extent that we rely on any of the exemptions available to emerging growth companies, you will receive less information about our executive compensation and internal control over financial reporting than issuers that are not emerging growth companies. If some investors find our Ordinary Shares to be less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our Ordinary Shares and our stock price may be more volatile.

As a foreign private issuer, we are not required to comply with all of the periodic disclosure and current reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and therefore there may be less publicly available information about us than if we were a U.S. domestic issuer. For example, we are not subject to the proxy rules in the United States and disclosure with respect to our annual general meetings will be governed by British Virgin Islands requirements. In addition, our officers, directors and principal shareholders are exempt from the reporting and "short-swing" profit recovery provisions of Section 16 of the Exchange Act and the rules thereunder. Therefore, our shareholders may not know on a timely basis when our officers, directors and principal shareholders purchase or sell our Ordinary Shares.

As a foreign private issuer, we are permitted to take advantage of certain provisions in the NASDAQ Stock Market listing rules that allow us to follow British Virgin Islands law for certain governance matters. Certain corporate governance practices in the British Virgin Islands may differ significantly from corporate governance listing standards as, except for general fiduciary duties and duties of care, British Virgin Islands law has no corporate governance regime which prescribes specific corporate governance standards. When our Ordinary Shares are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, we intend to continue to follow British Virgin Islands corporate governance practices in lieu of the corporate governance requirements of the Nasdaq Stock Market in respect of the following: (i) the majority independent director requirement under Section 5605(b)(1) of the NASDAQ Stock Market listing rules, (ii) the requirement under Section 5605(d) of the NASDAQ Stock Market listing rules that a compensation committee comprised solely of independent directors governed by a compensation committee charter oversee executive compensation, (iii) the requirement under Section 5605(e) of the NASDAQ Stock Market listing rules that director nominees be selected or recommended for selection by either a majority of the independent directors or a nominations committee comprised solely of independent directors and (iv) the requirement under Section 5605(b)(2) of the NASDAQ Stock Market listing rules that our independent directors hold regularly scheduled executive sessions. British Virgin Islands law does not impose a requirement that our board of directors consist of a majority of independent directors. Nor does British Virgin Islands law impose specific requirements on the establishment of a compensation committee or nominating committee or nominating process. Therefore, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would have under corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

An aggregate of 14,138,349 Ordinary Shares are outstanding as of the date of this annual report. If our existing shareholders sell, or indicate an intent to sell, substantial amounts of our Ordinary Shares in the public market, the market price of our Ordinary Shares could fall. Moreover, the perceived risk of this potential dilution could cause shareholders to attempt to sell their shares and investors to short our ordinary shares, thus depress the market price of our shares. A decline in the price of our Ordinary Shares might impede our ability to raise capital through the issuance of additional Ordinary Shares or other equity securities in the future at a time and price that we deem reasonable or appropriate.

Shareholder claims or regulatory investigation that are common in the United States generally are difficult to pursue as a matter of law or practicality in China. For example, in China, there are significant legal and other obstacles to providing information needed for regulatory investigations or litigation initiated outside China. Although the authorities in China may establish a regulatory cooperation mechanism with the securities regulatory authorities of another country or region to implement cross-border supervision and administration, such cooperation with the securities regulatory authorities in the Unities States may not be efficient in the absence of mutual and practical cooperation mechanism. Furthermore, according to Article 177 of the PRC Securities Law, or Article 177, which became effective in March 2020, no overseas securities regulator is allowed to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within the territory of the PRC. While detailed interpretation of or implementation rules under Article 177 have yet to be promulgated, the inability for an overseas securities regulator to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within China may further increase difficulties faced by you in protecting your interests. Our principal business operation is conducted in the PRC. In the event that the U.S. regulators carry out investigation on us and there is a need to conduct investigation or collect evidence within the territory of the PRC, the U.S. regulators may not be able to carry out such investigation or evidence collection directly in the PRC under the PRC laws. The U.S. regulators may consider cross-border cooperation with securities regulatory authority of the PRC by way of judicial assistance, diplomatic channels or regulatory cooperation mechanism established with the securities regulatory authority of the PRC.

We only started to produce Directly-Oral traditional Chinese medicine pieces products (the "Directly-Oral-TCMP") and After-soaking-oral TCMP products (the "After-Soaking-Oral-TCMP") as our principal products four years ago. As a result, our past operating results are not an accurate indication of the lines of business we are principally engaged in currently. Thus, you should consider our future prospects in light of the risks and uncertainties experienced by early stage companies in evolving markets rather than typical companies of our age. Some of these risks and uncertainties relate to our ability to: - attract additional customers and increased spending per customer;- increase awareness of our brand and develop customer loyalty;- respond to competitive market conditions;- respond to changes in our regulatory environment;- manage risks associated with intellectual property rights;- maintain effective control of our costs and expenses;- raise sufficient capital to sustain and expand our business;- attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and - upgrade our technology to support additional research and development of new products. If we are unsuccessful in addressing any of these risks and uncertainties, our business may be materially and adversely affected.