We investigate the self-serving attributions of negative firm performance (negative earnings surprise) to country risk by the CEOs of cross-listed companies. The SEC’s risk disclosure requirement, introduced to serve the host country investors’ information demand, inadvertently provided an institutional arbitrage opportunity for cross-listed company CEOs to present the country risk as an excuse for negative earnings surprises. The recent rise of geopolitical risk made it more likely for the CEOs to engage in this country risk attribution, which essentially decreased their dismissal likelihood. The efficacy of this unique CEO impression management tactic was significantly constrained by host country financial analysts’ stock recommendation downgrades and the presence of local directors on the board. We test our hypotheses utilizing the panel data for 430 Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges between 2010 and 2022.