While tunneling and related-party transactions are age-old topics, they still persist as lingering issues in the corporate governance field of emerging market economies to this day. This study focuses on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2015 to 2021, employing innovative methodological approach, objectively and dialectically examining the support and tunneling effects of related-party transactions, empirically investigates the relationship between related-party transactions and tunneling, as well as the link between ownership concentration and the extent and likelihood of tunneling by majority shareholders via related-party transactions. This study has positive implications for the optimization and improvement of corporate governance mechanisms in emerging market economies. It also provides some enlightening insights for the stable development of financial markets in the vast developing countries.