This study examines the role of internal control in Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEO) at Chinas stock markets, where government screens stock issue applicants. Owing to more severe regulation on public SEO than private SEO, most of firms chose to submit the application of private SEO, which the internal control quality is generally lower than those submitting the application of public SEO. However, high internal control quality is not helpful for public SEO applicants to obtain the approval from regulator, but for private SEO applicants. More importantly, internal control quality is contributed to the firms decision made between public and private SEO applications, that the firms with higher internal control quality is more likely to apply for public SEO. In addition, internal control quality is significantly positively correlated with postissue performance for private issuers, but not for public issuers.