Abstract: Accounting standards regulate accounting information, while accounting information protects investors via the pricing mechanism and governance mechanism. The regulations on accounting conservatism have experienced many changes since the first release of China’s accounting standards in 1992. There have been such trends as placing extra emphasis on the protection of the foreign investors, the state-owned investors and the market investors, one after another. However, due to imperfect market economic surroundings and defective supporting regulation systems, the accounting conservatism of China’s Accounting Standards has not been fully put into the accounting practice, and thus its mechanism of investor protection has only been partially achieved.

Key words: accounting standards; accounting conservatism; investor protection; pricing mechanism; governance mechanism