Chinese regulators are coordinating with their colleagues in the United States to avoid Chinese companies being delisted from US stock exchanges, a Chinese regulatory official said Thursday, as a long-running spat over auditing standards rages on.

A senior official at China's securities regulator warned that delisting Chinese companies from U.S. exchanges would be a setback for both the companies and bilateral relations, as he expressed wide support for Hong Kong as an international financial hub and destination for stock listings.

U.S. officials are considering barring foreign businesses from American stock exchanges if they do not adhere to U.S. auditing policies, which currently apply to a large number of Chinese enterprises.

Shen Bing, director general of the China Securities Regulatory Commission's foreign affairs department, told a Hong Kong conference that the regulator was in constant contact with its U.S. colleagues to resolve the delisting threat and was working diligently to do so.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and policymakers in the U.S. have long complained about a lack of access to audit working documents for Chinese businesses listed in the country.

Chinese authorities have been reluctant to allow foreign regulators to see working documents from domestic accounting firms, citing national security concerns.

"We believe that delisting Chinese enterprises from the U.S. market is detrimental to the companies, global investors, and China-U.S. ties," Shen added.

President Donald Trump signed a measure last December, during the final weeks of his presidency, aimed at delisting foreign corporations from U.S. exchanges if they failed to comply with American auditing standards for three consecutive years.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began enforcing new laws in March requiring the U.S. to review accounting work performed for Chinese corporations, despite China's longstanding refusal to do so.

China has also toughened standards for overseas listings, requiring cybersecurity evaluations of enterprises that collect large amounts of data, resulting in the cancellation of many agreements.

Ashley Alder, chief executive officer of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission, warned at the same conference that he believed China-U.S. tensions will obstruct a resolution.

"At times, politics can obstruct rational and realistic technological solutions, and I pick up on a certain political mentality within the U.S. establishment that is not always favorable to a better end."

Hong Kong had encountered similar difficulties obtaining access to mainland China audit working papers, but Alder stated that the SFC's relationship with the CSRC and a 2019 agreement helped alleviate these issues.