In the U.S., the idea of conservatism in accounting was taken for granted by many people. However, conservative accounting has not always been accepted. After the end of the civil war in China in 1949, the new rulers established a communist economic system and needed a new accounting system.

The idea of using conservatism was apparently rejected, with the new rulers seeing conservative accounting as a way that business owners hid profits from workers and from tax authorities. Is there any fairness in this view?