US to start audits of Chinese e-commerce giants United States regulators have selected tech giants Alibaba (9988) and Baidu (9888) among other US-listed Chinese companies for audit inspection starting this month in Hong Kong, people with knowledge of the matter said. The selection follows a landmark audit deal between Beijing and Washington on Friday allowing US regulators to vet accounting firms in mainland China and Hong Kong, potentially ending a long-running dispute that threatened to boot more than 200 Chinese companies from US stock exchanges. In addition, tech firms like JD.com (9618) and NetEase (9999) along with Yum China (9987)…