Company: ZHIHF
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000729
Chunk: 158

Company: Zhihu Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-15
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 158
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 a security review, it will submit it to the Inter-Ministerial Panel, an authority established under Circular 6 led by the NDRC, and the Ministry of Commerce under the leadership of the State Council, to carry out a security review. The rules prohibit foreign investors from bypassing the security review by structuring transactions through trusts, indirect investments, leases, loans, control through contractual arrangements or offshore transactions. There is no explicit provision or official interpretation stating that the merging or acquisition of a company engaged in the internet content business requires security review, and there is no requirement that acquisitions completed prior to the promulgation of the Rules of the Ministry of Commerce on Implementation of Security Review System of Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors are subject to the Ministry of Commerce’s review. On December 19, 2020, the NDRC and the Ministry of Commerce jointly promulgated the Measures for the Security Review for Foreign Investment effective on January 18, 2021, which, among other things, set forth provisions concerning the security review mechanism on foreign investment, including the types of investments subject to review, review scopes, and procedures. Foreign investor or relevant parties in China must declare the security review to the aforesaid office prior to their investments in important cultural products and services, important information technology and internet products and services, important financial services, key technologies, and other important fields relating to national security and obtain control in the target enterprise.

On February 17, 2023, the CSRC released the Overseas Listing Trial Measures and five supporting guidelines, which took effect on March 31, 2023. According to the Overseas Listing Trial Measures, domestic companies that seek to offer or list its securities overseas, either directly or indirectly, should fulfill filing procedure with, and report relevant information to, the CSRC. If a domestic company fails to complete the filing procedure, conceals any material fact, or falsifies any major content in its filing documents, the domestic company may be subject to administrative penalties, such as order to rectify, warnings, and fines, and its controlling shareholders, actual controllers, the person directly in charge, and other directly liable persons may also be subject to administrative penalties, such as warnings and fines. Furthermore, if the issuer meets both of the following conditions, the overseas offering and listing should be determined as an indirect overseas offering and listing by a domestic company: (a) any of the total assets, net assets, revenues or profits of the domestic operating entities of the issuer