Professional profile
About Helen
Export Control and Trade Sanctions Compliance Counsel in Zhuhai
Helen Yao advises Chinese companies on export control and trade sanctions compliance, with emphasis on usable programmes, licence timelines and enforcement reality across the PRC, US and EU regimes.
Helen Yao practices at Beijing Yingke (Zhuhai) Law Firm. She graduated from Jilin University and has more than 20 years of professional experience, including roles with listed companies and foreign-invested enterprises. She serves as Vice Secretary-General of the Zhuhai Enterprise Compliance Promotion Association and as a commercial mediator at the Hengqin International Commercial Mediation Center.
As Chinese companies go global, compliance challenges are no longer optional. Export controls, economic sanctions and tariff measures are increasingly used as policy tools, affecting new industries, advanced manufacturing and high-technology cross-border business. Helen Yao's practice focuses on the full range of export control and trade sanctions compliance for state-owned enterprises, cross-border listed companies and high-growth private enterprises.
Blacklist removal and crisis response
When a company is placed on the Entity List, the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List or the Unverified List, Helen Yao provides crisis response and emergency legal services. This includes internal investigations, legal remedies, and communication with US and EU authorities to pursue delisting or removal, including Unverified List removal and Entity List removal petitions.
Multi-jurisdiction compliance programmes (ECP)
Based on each client's actual business model, Helen Yao designs export compliance programmes (Internal Compliance Programs) that meet the expectations of multiple regulators. This includes operational control processes, review forms, contract protection clauses (sanction and export control clauses), regular compliance audits and employee training.
Controlled item classification and licence applications
Helen Yao helps identify whether products, technology, software and components in a company's R&D, production and trade are controlled, including ECCN classification and controlled attribute assessment. For high-risk transactions, she assists companies in applying for export licences from China's Ministry of Commerce, the US Bureau of Industry and Security, or relevant EU authorities, and provides guidance on record retention and compliance management.
Her work draws on China's Export Control Law and Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, the US Export Administration Regulations (EAR), the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the EU trade sanctions system.
Supply chain restructuring and transaction design
Helen Yao evaluates high-risk countries, restricted entities and sensitive transaction links across global supply chains, and helps companies design de-risking trade and investment structures. Through rigorous customer and supplier due diligence (KYC/KYP) mechanisms, she helps prevent supply chain disruption and large penalties caused by inadvertent regulatory violations.
How to Engage and What to Send First
Engagements are confirmed in writing, including scope, fees and communication protocols. Helen Yao does not promise outcomes; the commitment is accurate analysis, disciplined preparation and clear updates as facts evolve. Remote consultations are available for clients outside Zhuhai, including international clients who need English-language summaries of Chinese regulatory procedures.
When using this profile's contact form, please include: parties involved; the products, technology or services at issue; the relevant jurisdictions and lists; whether the matter is pre-transaction, under licence review, or under an enforcement or delisting process; and fixed deadlines.
Where urgent dates already exist, flag them first so preservation and interim measures take priority over a leisurely full-file review.
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