This paper examines the development of corporate govemance in China andUkraine, with a focus on independent directors. Corporate governance is a conceptwhose time seems definitely to have come in China. Chinese definitions of corporategovernance in the abstract tend to cover the system regulating relationships among allparties with interests in a business organization, usually spelling out shareholders as aparticularly important group. But Chinese corporate govemance discourse in practicefocuses almost exclusively on agency problems, and within only two types of firms:state-owned enterprises (SOEs), particularly after their transformation into one of thecorporate forms provided for under the Company Law, and listed companies, whichmust be companies limited by shares (CLS) under the Company Law.A system has been set up in China which provides for independent directors oflisted companies. Whether these independent directors could play an effective role has,however, always been a matter for dispute.What about the corporate board practices in Ukraine? The roles of board ofdirectors are mainly about control. The strategic and advisory roles are not developed.The mode of strategic involvement of the members of supervisory boards in Ukraineis mainly about reviewing and approving. Thus, the board of directors in Ukraine is "arubber stamp". The degree of independence of directors is very low. Major boardpractices in Ukraine are: small number of independent directors on the board; lowfrequency of meeting of the board; small number of committees on the board; themanagement board influences the supervisory board. Board practices in Ukraine needa sort of recommendations, similar to those, made in UK at the end of 1990s, and atthe start of the third millennium. This concerns mainly the work of committees anddeveloping the strategic role of the board.Also this paper will include the chapter about the development of independentdirectors institution.More attention I paid to supervisory board and the problem of overlapping withindependent director institution in China and Ukraine, the differences betweenChinese supervisory system and Ukrainian.Finally my paper will finished with conclusion where I will sum up the allinformation that I mentioned here.Keywords:Independent directors;corporate govemance;Supervisory board;ListedCompany;China and Ukraine.