Internationalizing China Standards Through Corporate Social Responsibility: An Exploratory Study of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Africa

ABSTRACT

The paper unpacks the multi-level efforts to establish, promote and implement China standards in overseas contexts through an examination of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Africa. Drawing upon document analysis of government policies, institutional guidelines and corporate reports from four case companies, as well as field research in Ethiopia, it identifies ways that Chinese corporate actors interpret, incorporate and initiate CSR standards through strategic planning and during overseas business activities. Analysis of both first-hand and secondary data shows the development of Chinese CSR standards is a co-production of international, national and local standards, which involves diverse actors and institutions and is driven by multiple considerations to fulfill commercial, political, social and diplomatic objectives for overseas companies and Chinese government.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
• Standardization
• Reporting
• State-owned Enterprises (SOEs)
• China
• Africa

Acknowledgments

The author benefits immensely from participating in the China Standards Workshop organized by the Max Planck-Cambridge Centre for Ethics, Economy, and Social Change, University of Cambridge. The author is grateful for the dedicated work by two workshop organizers, Miriam Driessen and Ruiyi Zhu as well as the thoughtful comments from other participants and audience during the workshop. The author also appreciates the very detailed and constructive comments from the anonymous reviewers. All remaining errors and mistakes are mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Frank Tang, ‘China Seeks to Lure New International Corporate Sustainability Body to Capital’, South China Morning Post, September 18, 2021, https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3149267/china-seeks-lure-new-international-corporate-sustainability.

² Michael O’Dwyer, ‘New Body to Oversee Global Sustainability Disclosure Standards’, Financial Times, November 3, 2021, https://www.ft.com/content/3fb80e89-4ce6-4cc8–8472-ae4c8c99b12d.

³ John Lee, Eric Zhang, and, and Rogier Creemers, ‘China’s Standardisation System—Trends, Implications and Case Studies in Emerging Technologies’ (Leiden, The Netherlands, 2022), www.leidenasiacentre.nl%0AFor.

⁴ Cissy Zhou, ‘Standard-Bearer: China Races U.S. and Europe to Set Tech Rules’, Nikkei Asia, December 21, 2021, https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Asia-Insight/Standard-bearer-China-races-U.S.-and-Europe-to-set-tech-rules.

⁵ Lee, Zhang, and Creemers, ‘China’s Standardisation System—Trends, Implications and Case Studies in Emerging Technologies’.

⁶ Tim Ruhlig, ‘The Shape of Things to Come: The Race to Control Technical Standardization: China’s Standardization Approach’, DGAP, December 2, 2021, https://dgap.org/en/research/publications/shape-things-come-race-control-technical-standardization?utm_content=buffer2bbef&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer.

⁷ Jacob Feldgoise and Matt Sheehan, ‘How U.S. Businesses View China’s Growing Influence in Tech Standards’, Carneigie Endowment for International Peace, December 23, 2021, https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/12/23/how-u.s.-businesses-view-china-s-growing-influence-in-tech-standards-pub-86084.

⁸ Standardization is considered as a strategy to upgrade’s China’s domestic industrial base, increase self-sufficiency and independence from western technology, boost the global competitiveness of Chinese industries, and promote Chinese strategic interests in the world economy. See, for example Lee, Zhang, and Creemers, ‘China’s Standardisation System—Trends, Implications and Case Studies in Emerging Technologies’.

⁹ Zhou, ‘Standard-Bearer: China Races U.S. and Europe to Set Tech Rules’.

¹⁰ Ching Kwan Lee, The Specter of Global China: Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investment in Africa (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2018).

¹¹ FOCAC, ‘Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Dakar Action Plan (2022–2024)’ (Beijing, China, 2021), https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjdt_665385/2649_665393/202112/t20211202_10461183.html.

¹² Na Yang et al., Home-Country Institutions and Corporate Social Responsibility of Emerging Economy Multinational Enterprises: The Belt and Road Initiative as an Example, Asia Pacific Journal of Management (Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 2020), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-020-09740-y; Alwyn Lim and Kiyoteru Tsutsui, ‘Globalization and Commitment in Corporate Social Responsibility: Cross-National Analyses of Institutional and Political-Economy Effects’, American Sociological Review 77, no. 1 (2012): 69–98, https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122411432701.

¹³ John L. Campbell, ‘Why Would Corporations Behave in Socially Responsible Ways? An Institutional Theory of Corporate Social Responsibility’, Academy of Management Review 32, no. 3 (2007): 946–67, https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2007.25275684; Ioannis Ioannou and George Serafeim, ‘What Drives Corporate Social Performance? The Role of Nation-Level Institutions’, Journal of International Business Studies 43, no. 9 (2012): 834–64, https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2012.26; Lim and Tsutsui, ‘Globalization and Commitment in Corporate Social Responsibility: Cross-National Analyses of Institutional and Political-Economy Effects’.

¹⁴ The broader research project aims to study capital-labor relations in Chinese overseas companies. Discussions in this paper draw upon the author’s semi-structured interviews with 19 Chinese managers and rank-and-file employees in one Chinese SOE in Ethiopia. During the interviews, the Chinese participants shared their thoughts and experiences of designing, planning, and participating in CSR activities carried out at the subsidiary level.

¹⁵ Fang Lee Cooke, Dan Wang, and Jue Wang, ‘State Capitalism in Construction: Staffing Practices and Labour Relations of Chinese Construction Firms in Africa’, Journal of Industrial Relations 60, no. 1 (2018): 77–100, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185617724836; Carlos Oya and Florian Schaefer, ‘The Politics of Labour Relations in Global Production Networks : Collective Action, Industrial Parks, and Local Conflict in the Ethiopian Apparel Sector’, World Development 146 (2021): 105564, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105564.

¹⁶ Archie B. Carroll, ‘A History of Corporate Social Responsibility: Concepts and Practices’, The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility, no. February (2009): 1–20, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199211593.003.0002.

¹⁷ Jean Tsitaire Arrive and Mei Feng, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: Evidence from BRICS Nations’, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 25, no. 5 (2018): 920–27, https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1508.

¹⁸ Bingyu Liu, ‘China’s State-Centric Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility Overseas: A Case Study in Africa’, Transnational Environmental Law 10, no. 1 (2021): 57–84, https://doi.org/10.1017/S2047102520000229.

¹⁹ Stacey Links, Tycho de Feijter, and Jonas Lammertink, ‘Chinese Approaches to Overseas Responsible Business Insights from the DRC Cobalt Industry’ (Leiden, The Netherlands, 2021), https://leidenasiacentre.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Chinese-Approaches-to-Overseas-Responsible-Business.pdf.

²⁰ Developed by the Social Accountability International, SA8000 is a certification program that focuses on non-legally binding governance standards. CSC9000T, in contrast, operates as an evaluation system of corporate performance. It is considered a softer approach that better suits the stages of economic development in China. See China National Textile and Apparel Council, ‘CSC900T: Corporate Sustainability Compact for Textile and Apparel Industry’ (Beijing, China, 2018), http://www.asiatex.org/Uploads/File/2018/01/09/u5a5481554d313.pdf.

²¹ Rachel Silvey, ‘A Wrench in the Global Works: Anti-Sweatshop Activism on Campus’, Antipode 38, no. 4 (2004): 191–97.

²² Larry Catt Backer, ‘China’s Corporate Social Responsibility with National Characteristics: Coherence and Dissonance with the Global Business and Human Rights Project’, SSRN Electronic Journal 123 (2014): 1–24, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2448030.

²³ Hongying Wang and Xue Ying Hu, ‘China’s “Going-out” Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility: Preliminary Evidence of a “Boomerang Effect”,’ Journal of Contemporary China 26, no. 108 (2017): 820–33, https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2017.1337301; Links, Feijter, and Lammertink, ‘Chinese Approaches to Overseas Responsible Business Insights from the DRC Cobalt Industry’.

²⁴ Li-wen Lin, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in China: Window Dressing or Structural Change?’, Berkeley Journal of International Law 28, no. 1 (2010): 64–100.

²⁵ Christopher Marquis and Cuili Qian, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China: Symbol or Substance?’, Organization Science 25, no. 1 (2014): 127–48, https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0837.

²⁶ May Tan-Mullins, ‘Smoothing the Silk Road through Successful Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: Evidence from East Africa’, Journal of Contemporary China 29, no. 122 (2020): 207–20, https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2019.1637568.

²⁷ 赵艺涵 (Zhao Yihan), ‘中央企业社会责任报告集中发布 专家以数据解析“十个特征” [Central State-Owned Enterprises’ Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Are Centrally Released, and Experts Analyze ‘Ten Characteristics’ through Data Interpretation]’, 中国新闻网[China News], 2022, http://www.sasac.gov.cn/n2588025/n2588139/c15686136/content.html.

²⁸ ‘“China Corporate Social Responsibility Report Guidelines (CASS-ESG 5.0)” Is Released, Providing Practical ESG Disclosure Tools for Enterprises’, Securities Daily, 2022, https://www.cdmfund.org/31339.html.

²⁹ GRI is an NGO that produces and disseminates Sustainability Reporting Guidelines for companies to disclose the economic, environmental, and social impacts of their business activities. The guidelines are considered more rigorous and standardized than the UN Global Compact. See Lim and Tsutsui, ‘Globalization and Commitment in Corporate Social Responsibility: Cross-National Analyses of Institutional and Political-Economy Effects’.

³⁰ Christopher Marquis, Juelin Yin, and Dongning Yang, ‘State-Mediated Globalization Processes and the Adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China’, Management and Organization Review 13, no. 1 (2017): 167–91, https://doi.org/10.1017/mor.2016.55.

³¹ Tokunbo Ojo, ‘The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities of Huawei and ZTE in Africa’, China-Africa Relations, 2018, 218–30, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315229096–13.

³² Patrick Haack, Dennis Schoeneborn, and Christopher Wickert, ‘Talking the Talk, Moral Entrapment, Creeping Commitment? Exploring Narrative Dynamics in Corporate Responsibility Standardization’, Organization Studies 33, no. 5–6 (2012): 815–45, https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840612443630.

³³ Marquis and Qian, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China: Symbol or Substance?’; Marquis, Yin, and Yang, ‘State-Mediated Globalization Processes and the Adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China’.

³⁴ For exceptions, see May Tan Mullins and May Tan-Mullins, ‘Smoothing the Silk Road through Successful Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: Evidence from East Africa’, Journal of Contemporary China 29, no. 122 (2020): 207–20, https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2019.1637568; May Tan-Mullins and Giles Mohan, ‘The Potential of Corporate Environmental Responsibility of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Africa’, Environment, Development and Sustainability 15 (2013): 265–84, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9409-x; Liu, ‘China’s State-Centric Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility Overseas: A Case Study in Africa’; Ojo, ‘The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities of Huawei and ZTE in Africa’; Yang et al., Home-Country Institutions and Corporate Social Responsibility of Emerging Economy Multinational Enterprises: The Belt and Road Initiative as an Example.

³⁵ Liu, ‘China’s State-Centric Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility Overseas: A Case Study in Africa’.

³⁶ 赵艺涵 (Zhao Yihan), ‘中央企业社会责任报告集中发布 专家以数据解析“十个特征” [Central State-Owned Enterprises’ Corporate Social Responsibility Reports Are Centrally Released, and Experts Analyze ‘Ten Characteristics’ through Data Interpretation]’.

³⁷ Tan-Mullins, ‘Smoothing the Silk Road through Successful Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: Evidence from East Africa’.

³⁸ ZTE is the only company among the four that is not of central ownership (hence not supervised by SASAC). It adopts a business model of state-owned and private operating.

³⁹ Wang and Hu, ‘China’s “Going-out” Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility: Preliminary Evidence of a “Boomerang Effect”.’.

⁴⁰ Shawn Pope and Alwyn Lim, ‘Why Companies Practice Corporate Social Responsibility’, MIT Salon Management Review, 2022, 1–3, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-companies-practice-corporate-social-responsibility/.

⁴¹ Gili S. Drori, John W. Meyer, and Hokyu Hwang, Globalization and Organization: World Society and Organizational Change, ed. Gili S. Drori, John W. Meyer, and Hokyu Hwang, 2006, https://b-ok.cc/book/563686/f76067.

⁴² Tan-Mullins, ‘Smoothing the Silk Road through Successful Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility Practices: Evidence from East Africa’, p.208; May Tan-Mullins and Giles Mohan, ‘The Potential of Corporate Environmental Responsibility of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Africa’, Environment, Development and Sustainability 15 (2013): 265–84, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9409-x. p.208.

⁴³ Mimi Zou, ‘Labour Standards Along “One Belt One Road”,’ in Legal Dimensions of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, ed. Lutz-Christian Wolff and Chao Xi (Wolters Kluwer, 2016), 357–92, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2838599.

⁴⁴ Marquis, Yin, and Yang, ‘State-Mediated Globalization Processes and the Adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China’; Giovanni Pasquali, ‘Rethinking the Governance of Labour Standards in South—South Regional Value Chains’, Global Networks 21, no. 1 (2021): 170–95, https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12266.

⁴⁵ The Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Reform of SOEs by the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party and the State Council in 2015 identifies the core mission of raising the efficiency of state capital and enhancing the vitality of SOEs. To be sure, the document also emphasizes the leading role of SOEs in delivering social responsibilities. For more discussion on SOE reforms, see Wendy Leutert, ‘Challenges Ahead in China’s Reform of State-Owned Enterprises’, Asia Policy 21, no. 1 (2016): 83–99, https://doi.org/10.1353/asp.2016.0013; Xin Li and Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard, ‘SOE Reform in China: Past, Present and Future’, The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 31, no. 2 (2013): 54–79.

⁴⁶ Lee Jones and Yizheng Zou, ‘Rethinking the Role of State-Owned Enterprises in China’s Rise’, New Political Economy 22, no. 6 (2017): 743–60, https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2017.1321625.

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⁴⁸ Aihwa Ong, ‘Powers of Sovereignty: State, People, Wealth, Life’, Focaal 2012, no. 64 (November 26, 2012): 24–35, https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2012.640103; Ngai Pun and Jenny Chan, ‘Global Capital, the State, and Chinese Workers: The Foxconn Experience’, Modern China 38, no. 4 (2012): 383–410, https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700412447164.

⁴⁹ Seok Beom Choi, ‘Motivating Corporate Social Responsibility Practices under Customer Pressure among Small ‐ and Medium ‐ Sized Suppliers in China : The Role of Dynamic Capabilities’, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, no. 26 (2019): 213–26, https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1673; Yongbo Li et al., ‘Analyzing the Critical Success Factor of CSR for the Chinese Textile Industry’, Journal of Cleaner Production 260 (2020): 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120878.

⁵⁰ Li-Wen Lin, ‘Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility? Legislative Innovation and Judicial Application in China’, American Journal of Comparative Law 68, no. 3 (2020): 576–615, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa025.

⁵¹ Yuan Wang and Uwe Wissenbach, ‘Clientelism at Work? A Case Study of Kenyan Standard Gauge Railway Project’, Economic History of Developing Regions 34, no. 3 (2019): 280–99, https://doi.org/10.1080/20780389.2019.1678026; Gediminas Lesutis, ‘Kenya’s Mega-Railway Project Leaves Society More Unequal than Before’, The Conversation, November 8, 2021, https://theconversation.com/kenyas-mega-railway-project-leaves-society-more-unequal-than-before-170969; Gediminas Lesutis, ‘Infrastructural Territorialisations: Mega-Infrastructures and the (Re)Making of Kenya’, Political Geography 90, no. November 2020 (2021): 102459, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102459; Carlos Mureithi, ‘Kenya’s Expensive Chinese-Built Railway Is Racking up Losses Even as Loans Come Due’, Quarz Africa, October 8, 2021, https://qz.com/africa/1915399/kenyas-chinese-built-sgr-railway-racks-up-losses-as-loans-due/; NPR, ‘A New Chinese-Funded Railway In Kenya Sparks Debt-Trap Fears’, NPR All Things Considered, October 8, 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/10/08/641625157/a-new-chinese-funded-railway-in-kenya-sparks-debt-trap-fears.

⁵² Tobias Nyumba, ‘Kenya’s Huge Railway Project Is Causing Environmental Damage. Here’s How’, The Conversation, June 28, 2021, https://theconversation.com/kenyas-huge-railway-project-is-causing-environmental-damage-heres-how-159813.

⁵³ Tobias Ochieng Nyumba et al., ‘Assessing the Ecological Impacts of Transportation Infrastructure Development: A Reconnaissance Study of the Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya’, PLoS ONE 16, no. 1 January (2021): 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246248; Uwe Wissenbach and Yuan Wang, ‘African Politics Meets Chinese Engineers : The Chinese-Built Standard Gauge Railway Project in Kenya and East Africa’ (Washington DC, 2017), http://www.sais-cari.org/publications.

⁵⁴ Shi Yi, ‘Kenyan Coal Project Shows Why Chinese Investors Need to Take Environmental Risks Seriously’, China Dialogue, March 9, 2021, https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/lamu-kenyan-coal-project-chinese-investors-take-environmental-risks-seriously/.

⁵⁵ Rebekka Rumpel, ‘Lessons from Kenya’s New, Chinese-Funded Railway’, Chatham House, June 20, 2017, https://www.chathamhouse.org/2017/06/lessons-kenyas-new-chinese-funded-railway.

⁵⁶ 中国建筑(CCCC), ‘The First Social Responsibility Report for Chinese Overseas Projects by a Company Has Been Serialized up to the Third Quarter.[第一份中国企业海外项目社会责任报告已连载到第三季]’, 搜狐网[Sohu.Com], June 23, 2018, https://www.sohu.com/a/237525563_370262.

⁵⁷ Ching Kwan Lee, ‘The Spectre of Global China’, New Left Review 89 (2014).

⁵⁸ PowerChina, ‘Power Construction Corporation of China: Zambia Sustainability Report’, 2018, http://www.powerchina.cn/col/col7628/index.html.

⁵⁹ Mary Ajith Goch, ‘China, Oil and the South Sudan Resource Curse’, Elephant, February 18, 2022, https://www.theelephant.info/features/2022/02/18/china-oil-and-the-south-sudan-resource-curse/; HRW, ‘Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights’, Human Rights Watch, 2004, https://doi.org/10.2307/20033958.

⁶⁰ CNPC, ‘CNPC in Sudan Sustainability Report’, 2010.

⁶¹ The CSR report includes various data to prove the economic performance of the railway. For example, the railway shortened the travel time from Mombasa to Nairobi from 10 hours to 4 hours. It contributed 1% GDP growth for Kenya and drove down the logistical costs by 40%.

⁶² Marquis and Qian, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China: Symbol or Substance?’.

⁶³ May Tan-Mullins and Peter S. Hofman, ‘The Shaping of Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility’, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 43, no. 4 (2014): 3–18, https://doi.org/10.1177/186810261404300401.

⁶⁴ Liu, ‘China’s State-Centric Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility Overseas: A Case Study in Africa’; Backer, ‘China’s Corporate Social Responsibility with National Characteristics: Coherence and Dissonance with the Global Business and Human Rights Project’; Ojo, ‘The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities of Huawei and ZTE in Africa’.

⁶⁵ Interview with the Chinese public relations manager, Addis Ababa, June 2016, translated by the author.

⁶⁶ Links, Feijter, and Lammertink, ‘Chinese Approaches to Overseas Responsible Business Insights from the DRC Cobalt Industry’.

⁶⁷ Interview with the Chinese public relations manager, Addis Ababa, July 2016, translated by the author.

⁶⁸ Ojo, ‘The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities of Huawei and ZTE in Africa’.

⁶⁹ Yifeng Chen and Ulla Liukkunen, ‘Enclave Governance and Transnational Labour Law—A Case Study of Chinese Workers on Strike in Africa’, Nordic Journal of International Law 88, no. 4 (2019): 558–86, https://doi.org/10.1163/15718107–08804005; Rasmus Lema et al., ‘China’s Investments in Renewable Energy in Africa: Creating Co-Benefits or Just Cashing-In?’, World Development 141 (2021): 105365, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105365.

⁷⁰ Zou, ‘Labour Standards Along “One Belt One Road”’, p. 18–19.

⁷¹ Xiaoyang Tang, ‘Bulldozer or Locomotive? The Impact of Chinese Enterprises on the Local Employment in Angola and the DRC’, Journal of Asian and African Studies 45, no. 3 (June 2010): 350–68, https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909610364777; Lee, ‘The Spectre of Global China’; Fei, Ding, ‘Variegated Work Regimes of Chinese Investment in Ethiopia.’ World Development 135, no. 105049 (2020): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105049; Fei, Ding. ‘Employee Management Strategies of Chinese Telecommunications Companies In Ethiopia: Half-Way Localization and Internationalization.’ Journal of Contemporary China 30, no. 130 (2021): 61–676. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2020.1852740; Fei, Ding. ‘The Compound Labor Regime of Chinese Construction Projects in Ethiopia.’ Geoforum 17 (2020): 13–23. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.08.013.

⁷² Compared to 81% in Asia pacific, 71% in Europe, 45% in North America, and 67% in Latin America.

⁷³ Compared to 60.70% in 2018 and 51.27% in 2019.

⁷⁴ Compared to 97% in Central Asia, 92% in Latin America, and 98% in Middle East.

⁷⁵ Mengtian Xiao et al., ‘To What Extent Is Corporate Social Responsibility Part of Human Resource Management in the Chinese Context? A Review of Literature and Future Research Directions’, Human Resource Management Review 30, no. 4 (2020): 100726, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100726; Lei Wang and Heikki Juslin, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in the Chinese Forest Industry: Understanding Multiple Stakeholder Perceptions’, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management 20, no. 3 (2013): 129–45, https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.286; Dongwei Li, Han Lin, and Ya Wen Yang, ‘Does the Stakeholders-Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Relationship Exist in Emerging Countries? Evidence from China’, Social Responsibility Journal 12, no. 1 (2016): 147–66, https://doi.org/10.1108/SRJ-01-2015–0018.

⁷⁶ PowerChina, ‘2020年中国电力建设集团有限公司社会责任报告[2020 PowerChina Corporate Social Responsibility Report]’, 2021, http://www.powerchina.cn/col/col7628/index.html.

⁷⁷ Interview with the Chinese human resource manager, Addis Ababa, June 2016, translated by the author.

⁷⁸ Lin, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in China: Window Dressing or Structural Change?’ p. 96.

⁷⁹ Liu, ‘China’s State-Centric Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility Overseas: A Case Study in Africa’, p. 67.

⁸⁰ Irene Yuan Sun, Kartik Jayaram, and Omid Kassiri, ‘Dance of the Lions and Dragons: How Are Africa and China Engaging, and How Will the Partnership Evolve?’, McKinsey Global Institute, 2017, https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Featured Insights/Middle East and Africa/The closest look yet at Chinese economic engagement in Africa/Dance-of-the-lions-and-dragons.ashx; Katy N Lam, Chinese State Owned Enterprises in West Africa: Triple-Embedded Globalization, Routledge Studies on Asia in the World (Taylor & Francis, 2016).

⁸¹ Links, Feijter, and Lammertink, ‘Chinese Approaches to Overseas Responsible Business Insights from the DRC Cobalt Industry’.