# EDGAR Filing Document

**Accession Number:** 0001751876
**File Stem:** 0001213900-23-014997
**Filing Date:** 2023-2
**Character Count:** 16118
**Document Hash:** f885e1ff2f25d916c1a465f0d3f673dc
**Contains OCR:** False
**Source Format:** 

## Filing Content

## Filing Summary
**0001213900-23-014997.hdr.sgml**: 20230515

**ACCESSION NUMBER**: 0001213900-23-014997

**CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE**: CORRESP

**PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT**: 1

**FILED AS OF DATE**: 20230227

**FILER**: 

**COMPANY DATA:**
- **COMPANY CONFORMED NAME:** Happiness Development Group Ltd
- **CENTRAL INDEX KEY:** 0001751876
- **STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION:** MEDICINAL CHEMICALS & BOTANICAL PRODUCTS [2833]
- **IRS NUMBER:** 000000000
- **STATE OF INCORPORATION:** E9
- **FISCAL YEAR END:** 0331

**FILING VALUES:**
- **FORM TYPE:** CORRESP

**BUSINESS ADDRESS:**
- **STREET 1:** NO. 11, DONGJIAO EAST ROAD, SHUANGXI
- **STREET 2:** SHUNCHANG
- **CITY:** NANPING,
- **STATE:** F4
- **ZIP:** 353001
- **BUSINESS PHONE:** 86-0599-782-8808

**MAIL ADDRESS:**
- **STREET 1:** NO. 11, DONGJIAO EAST ROAD, SHUANGXI
- **STREET 2:** SHUNCHANG
- **CITY:** NANPING,
- **STATE:** F4
- **ZIP:** 353001

**FORMER COMPANY:**
- **FORMER CONFORMED NAME:** Happiness Development Group Ltd
- **DATE OF NAME CHANGE:** 20211112

**FORMER COMPANY:**
- **FORMER CONFORMED NAME:** Happiness Biotech Group Ltd
- **DATE OF NAME CHANGE:** 20180831

**Happiness Development Group Limited**

**No. 11, Dongjiao East Road, Shuangxi, Shunchang, Nanping City**

**Fujian Province, People's Republic of China**

February 27, 2023

**<u>VIA EDGAR</u>**

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Division of Corporation Finance

Office of Life Sciences

100 F Street, N.E.

Washington, DC 20549

---

| | |
|:---|:---|
| Attn: | Daniel Crawford |
|  | Alan Campbell |
|  | Vanessa Robertson |
|  | Kevin Vaughn |

---

---

| | |
|:---|:---|
| Re: | **Happiness Development Group Limited<br> Annual Report on Form 20-F for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2022**<br> **Response dated February 8, 2023**<br> **File No. 001-39098** |

---

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Happiness Development Group Limited (the "**Company**", "**HAPP**," "**we**", "**us**" or "**our**") hereby transmits its response to the letter received from the staff (the "**Staff**") of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "**Commission**"), dated February 14, 2023 regarding our Form 20-F for fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. For ease of reference, we have repeated the Commission's comments in this response and numbered them accordingly.

<u>Correspondence dated February 8, 2023</u>

<u>Part I</u>

<u>Item 4. Information on the Company</u>

<u>B. Business Overview, page 9</u>

**1.** **We note your response to comment 8 and reissue in part. Please revise your proposed disclosure to explain why you believe you and your PRC subsidiaries are not required to obtain permission or approval for the listing or trading of Class A ordinary shares in foreign stock exchanges from the CSRC.** 

**Response**: In response to the Staff's comment, we respectfully propose to revise the referenced disclosure as shown below (revisions in italic). We will file a consent letter from our PRC counsel as exhibit 15.1 to the Amendment to Form 20-F.

We propose to revise the disclosures at the onset of Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview as follows:

*"**Permissions or Approval Required from the PRC Authorities for Our Operations and Listing***

Furthermore, *as advised by our PRC legal counsel, Allbright Law Offices*, we and our PRC subsidiaries are not required to obtain permission or approval for the listing or trading of Class A ordinary shares in foreign stock exchanges from the PRC authorities including the CSRC or the CAC, or any other PRC governmental authorities. As of the date of this annual report, we or our subsidiaries have not received any inquiry, notice, warning, sanctions or regulatory objection to our listing on Nasdaq from the CSRC or other PRC governmental authorities. However, there remains significant uncertainty as to the enactment, interpretation and implementation of regulatory requirements related to overseas securities offerings and other capital markets activities.

We are aware, however, that recently the PRC government initiated a series of regulatory actions and statements to regulate business operations in China with little advance notice, including cracking down on illegal activities in the securities market, enhancing supervision over China-based companies listed overseas using a variable interest entity structure, adopting new measures to extend the scope of cybersecurity reviews, and expanding the efforts in anti-monopoly enforcement.

On December 24, 2021, the CSRC issued Provisions of the State Council on the Administration of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (Draft for Comments) (the "Administration Provisions"), and the Administration Measures for the Filing of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (Draft for Comments) (the "Measures"), *which were opened for public comments until January 23, 2022*."

*On February 17, 2023, the CSRC promulgated the Trial Administrative Measures of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (the "Trial Measures"), which will take effect on March 31, 2023. The Trial Measures clarified and emphasized several aspects, which include but are not limited to: (1) comprehensive determination of the "indirect overseas offering and listing by PRC domestic companies" in compliance with the principle of "substance over form" and particularly, an issuer will be required to go through the filing procedures under the Trial Measures if the following criteria are met at the same time: a) 50% or more of the issuer's operating revenue, total profit, total assets or net assets as documented in its audited consolidated financial statements for the most recent accounting year is accounted for by PRC domestic companies, and b) the main parts of the issuer's business activities are conducted in mainland China, or its main places of business are located in mainland China, or the senior managers in charge of its business operation and management are mostly Chinese citizens or domiciled in mainland China; (2) exemptions from immediate filing requirements for issuers that a) have already been listed or registered but not yet listed in foreign securities markets, including U.S. markets, prior to the effective date of the Trial Measures, and b) are not required to re-perform the regulatory procedures with the relevant overseas regulatory authority or the overseas stock exchange, c) whose such overseas securities offering or listing shall be completed before September 30, 2023, provided however that such issuers shall carry out filing procedures as required if they conduct refinancing or are involved in other circumstances that require filing with the CSRC; (3) a negative list of types of issuers banned from listing or offering overseas, such as (a) issuers whose listing or offering overseas have been recognized by the State Council of the PRC as possible threats to national security, (b) issuers whose affiliates have been recently convicted of bribery and corruption, (c) issuers under ongoing criminal investigations, and (d) issuers under major disputes regarding equity ownership; (4) issuers' compliance with web security, data security, and other national security laws and regulations; (5) issuers' filing and reporting obligations, such as obligation to file with the CSRC after it submits an application for initial public offering to overseas regulators, and obligation after offering or listing overseas to report to the CSRC material events including change of control or voluntary or forced delisting of the issuer; and (6) the CSRC's authority to fine both issuers and their shareholders between 1 and 10 million RMB for failure to comply with the Trial Measures, including failure to comply with filing obligations or committing fraud and misrepresentation.*

Pursuant to the PRC Cybersecurity Law, which was promulgated by the SCNPC on November 7, 2016 and took effect on June 1, 2017, personal information and important data collected and generated by a critical information infrastructure operator in the course of its operations in China must be stored in China, and if a critical information infrastructure operator purchases internet products and services that affects or may affect national security, it should be subject to cybersecurity review by the CAC. Due to the lack of further interpretations, the exact scope of "critical information infrastructure operator" remains unclear. On December 28, 2021, the CAC and other relevant PRC governmental authorities jointly promulgated the Cybersecurity Review Measures (the "new Cybersecurity Review Measures") to replace the original Cybersecurity Review Measures. The new Cybersecurity Review Measures took effect on February 15, 2022. Pursuant to the new Cybersecurity Review Measures, if critical information infrastructure operators purchase network products and services, or network platform operators conduct data processing activities that affect or may affect national security, they will be subject to cybersecurity review. A network platform operator holding more than one million users/users' individual information also shall be subject to cybersecurity review before listing abroad. The cybersecurity review will evaluate, among others, the risk of critical information infrastructure, core data, important data, or a large amount of personal information being influenced, controlled or maliciously used by foreign governments and risk of network data security after going public overseas. As of the date of this annual report, *as advised by our PRC counsel, Allbright Law Offices*, we do not expect to be subject to cybersecurity review because: (i) we are not an operator of critical information infrastructure, and (ii) we are not an online platform operator who possesses personal information of more than one million users."

We propose to revise the risk factor "***The approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or the CSRC, may be required in connection with an offering under PRC rules, regulations, or policies, and, if required, we cannot predict whether or how soon we will be able to obtain such approval. As a result, both you and us fact uncertainty about future actions by the PRC government that could significantly affect our business, our listing on Nasdaq, financial condition and results of operations***" as follows:

***The approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or the CSRC, may be required in connection with an offering under PRC rules, regulations, or policies, and, if required, we cannot predict whether or how soon we will be able to obtain such approval. As a result, both you and us fact uncertainty about future actions by the PRC government that could significantly affect our business, our listing on Nasdaq, financial condition and results of operations.***

As of the date of this annual report, *as advised by our PRC counsel, Allbright Law Offices*, we and our subsidiaries, (1) are currently not required to obtain permissions from any PRC authorities to list or trade our Ordinary Shares in foreign stock exchanges which took place before March 31, 2023, (2) are not subject to permission requirements from the CSRC, CAC or any other entity that is required to approve of our PRC subsidiaries' operations, and (3) have not received or were denied such permissions by any PRC authorities. Nevertheless, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council jointly issued the "Opinions on Severely Cracking Down on Illegal Securities Activities According to Law," or the Opinions, which were made available to the public on July 6, 2021. The Opinions emphasized the need to strengthen the administration over illegal securities activities, and the need to strengthen the supervision over overseas listings by Chinese companies. Given the current PRC regulatory environment, it is uncertain when and whether we or our PRC subsidiaries, will be required to obtain permission from the PRC government to list on U.S. exchanges in the future, and even when such permission is obtained, whether it will be denied or rescinded. We have been closely monitoring regulatory developments in China regarding any necessary approvals from the CSRC or other PRC governmental authorities required for overseas listings. As of the date of this annual report, we have not received any inquiry, notice, warning, sanctions or regulatory objection to this offering from the CSRC or other PRC governmental authorities. However, there remains significant uncertainty as to the enactment, interpretation and implementation of regulatory requirements related to overseas securities offerings and other capital markets activities.

*On February 17, 2023, the CSRC promulgated the Trial Administrative Measures of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (the "Trial Measures"), which will take effect on March 31, 2023. The Trial Measures clarified and emphasized several aspects, which include but are not limited to: (1) comprehensive determination of the "indirect overseas offering and listing by PRC domestic companies" in compliance with the principle of "substance over form" and particularly, an issuer will be required to go through the filing procedures under the Trial Measures if the following criteria are met at the same time: a) 50% or more of the issuer's operating revenue, total profit, total assets or net assets as documented in its audited consolidated financial statements for the most recent accounting year is accounted for by PRC domestic companies, and b) the main parts of the issuer's business activities are conducted in mainland China, or its main places of business are located in mainland China, or the senior managers in charge of its business operation and management are mostly Chinese citizens or domiciled in mainland China; (2) exemptions from immediate filing requirements for issuers that a) have already been listed or registered but not yet listed in foreign securities markets, including U.S. markets, prior to the effective date of the Trial Measures, and b) are not required to re-perform the regulatory procedures with the relevant overseas regulatory authority or the overseas stock exchange, c) whose such overseas securities offering or listing shall be completed before September 30, 2023, provided however that such issuers shall carry out filing procedures as required if they conduct refinancing or are involved in other circumstances that require filing with the CSRC; (3) a negative list of types of issuers banned from listing or offering overseas, such as (a) issuers whose listing or offering overseas have been recognized by the State Council of the PRC as possible threats to national security, (b) issuers whose affiliates have been recently convicted of bribery and corruption, (c) issuers under ongoing criminal investigations, and (d) issuers under major disputes regarding equity ownership; (4) issuers' compliance with web security, data security, and other national security laws and regulations; (5) issuers' filing and reporting obligations, such as obligation to file with the CSRC after it submits an application for initial public offering to overseas regulators, and obligation after offering or listing overseas to report to the CSRC material events including change of control or voluntary or forced delisting of the issuer; and (6) the CSRC's authority to fine both issuers and their shareholders between 1 and 10 million RMB for failure to comply with the Trial Measures, including failure to comply with filing obligations or committing fraud and misrepresentation.*

We thank the Staff for its review of the foregoing. If you have further comments, we ask that you forward them by electronic mail to our counsel, Joan Wu, Esq. at jwu@htflawyers.com or by telephone at (212) 530-2208.

---

| |
|:---|
| Very truly yours, |
| /s/ Xuezhu Wang |
| Xuezhu Wang |
| Chief Executive Officer |

---

cc: Joan Wu, Esq. <br> Hunter Taubman Fischer & Li LLC