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Original Articles

The Harmonious Society, Corporate Social Responsibility and Legal Responses to Ethical Norms in Chinese Company Law

Jingchen Zhao Lecturer in Law, University of Salford.
Pages 163-200 | Published online: 07 May 2015

  • “Harmonious Society”, People's Daily, 29 September 2007.
  • Ibid.
  • HC de Bettignies, “CSR ‘Fatigue' and China's Performance” [January 2011] The GRLI Partner Magazine 31, 31.
  • At the end of 2010 China's economy was worth close to $5.8 trillion, while Japan's economy was worth $5.474 trillion.
  • L Zhao, “The Transformation and Trend in Corporate Social Responsibility in China” (2005) 2 Management Research 7, 7–8.
  • Z Du, “Corporate Social Responsibility and Measures for Enforcement (Qiye de Shehui Zeren Jiqi Shixian Fangshi)” (2005) 4 Journal of Renmin University of China (Zhongguo Renmin Daxue Xuebao) 39, 42–44.
  • Du, Ibid, 43.
  • KH Darigan and JE Post, “Corporate Citizenship in China: CSR Challenges in the ‘Harmonious Society'” (2009) Journal of Corporate Citizenship 39, 42; for more discussions on the potential benefits for corporations which are socially responsible, see LW Lin, “Corporate Social Accountability Standards in the Global Supply Chain: Resistance, Reconsideration, and Resolution in China” (2007) 15 Cardozo Journal of International Comparative Law 321; AF Alkhafaji, A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Governance: Managing in A Dynamic Environment (New York, Quorum Books, 1989); JW Anderson, Corporate Social Responsibilities (New York, Quorum Books, 1984); JJ Brummer, Corporate Responsibility and Legitimacy: An Interdisciplinary Analysis (New York, Greenwood Press, 1991); SN Brenner and EA Molander, “Is the Ethics of Business Changing” (1977) 58 Harvard Business Review 54; KE Goodpaster, “Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysis” (1991) Business Ethics Quarterly 53; A Carroll, Business and Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management (Cincinnati, South-Western Publishing, 1993); LS Munllia and MP Miles, “The Corporate Social Responsibility Continuum as a Component of Stakeholder Theory” (2005) 110 Business and Society Review 371; AL Friedman and S Miles, Stakeholders: Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2006).
  • There are also arguments that CSR represents a step toward standards which will eventually be regulated, or which view CSR as an antidote to over-regulation; see IL Fannon, “The Corporate Social Responsibility Movement and Law's Empire: Is There a Conflict?” (2007) Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 1, 4–9; see also S Learmount, Corporate Governance, What Can Be Learned from Japan? (Oxford University Press, 2002); I Hill, “How Finance Can Help Move CSR up the Agenda” (2006) 16 The Cost and Management 5; see also arguments from a common law perspective: Evans v Brunner Mond Company Limited [1921] 1 Ch 359; AP Smith Manufacturing Co v Barlow [1953] 13 N.J.145; Shlensky v Wrigley 237 NE 2d 776 (III App Ct 1968); Green v Hamilton International (1977) 437 F Supp 723, 729 New York; R (on the Application of People and Planet) v HM Treasury [2009] EWHC 3020 (Admin); Re West Coast Capital (LIOS) Ltd [2008] CSOH 72, 16 May 2008 (Outer House, Court of Sessions, Scotland, Lord Glennie), [21]; Stone & Rolls Ltd (In Liquidation) v Moore Stephens (A Firm) [2009] UKHL 39. For the interests of creditors (as a important external stakeholders) see: Diplock in Lonrho Ltd v Shell Petroleum Co Ltd [1980] 1WLR 627; Lonrho Ltd v Shell Petroleum Co Ltd [1980] 1 WLR 627; Re Horsley & Weight Ltd [1982] 3 All ER 1045; Brady v Brady [1988] 3 BCC 535; Liquidator of West Mercia Safetywear Ltd v Dodd (1988) 4 BCC 30; Percival v Wright [1902] 2 Ch 421; Multinational Gas and Petrochemical Co. v Multinational Gas and Petrochemical Services Ltd [1983] Ch 258; Peskin v Anderson [2000] BCC 1110; Yukong Lines Ltd of Korea v Rendsburg Investments Corporation [1998] BCC 870; Spies v The Queen [2000] 201 CLR 603, [2000] 173 ALR 529; Kinsela v Russell Kinsela Pty Ltd [1986] 4 NSWLR 722; Re New World Alliance Pty Ltd; Sycotex Pty Ltd v Baseler [1994] 51 FCR 425; Grove v Flavel [1986] 43 SASR 410; Jeffree v National Companies and Securities Commission [1989] 7 ACLC 556; Re Trizec Corp [1994] 10 WWR 127; Re Saul D Harrison & Sons plc [1995] 1 BCLC 14, Re Welfab Engineers Ltd [1990] BCLC 883.
  • Fannon, Ibid, 16.
  • M Anthony, “The New China: Big Brother, Brave New World or Harmonious Society” (2007) 11 Journal Of Future Studies 15, 31.
  • President Hu Jintao, “Scientific Outlook Development”, lecture at Yale University, 24 April 2006; in the lecture, Hu clarified that “China will pursue a scientific outlook on development that makes economic and social development people-oriented, comprehensive, balanced and sustainable. We will work to strike a proper balance between urban and rural development, development among regions, economic and social development, development of man and nature, and domestic development and opening wider to the outside world; it is also rooted in the culture heritages of the Chinese nation.”
  • JP Gies and B Holt, “Harmonious Society: Rise of the New China” (2009) Strategic Studies Quarterly 75, 75.
  • A de Haan, “The Financial Crisis and China's ‘Harmonious Society'” (2010) Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 69, 82–83.
  • D Kelly, “Guest Editor's Introduction” (2006) 38 Contemporary Chinese Thought 3; see also C Wong, “Rebuilding Government for the 21st Century: Can China Incrementally Reform the Public Sector?” (2009) The China Quarterly 929.
  • J Yu, “Social Conflict in Rural China” (2007) 3 China Security 2.
  • G See, “Harmonious Society and Chinese CSR: Is There Really a Link?” (2008) 89 Journal of Business Ethics 1, 1–2.
  • For discussions on Deng's declaration and the Harmonious Society see also GK Sims, “The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future” (2006) 65 The Journal of Asian Studies 403.
  • “Building Harmonious Society Crucial for China's Progress: Hu”, People's Daily, 27 June 2006.
  • Xinhua News Agency, “China Publishes Its Resolution on Building a Harmonious Society. State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China”, 15 February 2006, available at http://www.scio.gov.cn/zgxwybd/en/2006/22/200612/t103742.htm (all URLs last accessed on 23 February 2012).
  • Xinhua News Agency, “China Publishes ‘Harmonious Society' Resolution”, available at http://www.china.org.cn/english/2006/Oct/184810.htm.
  • JF Steiner and GA Steiner, Business, Government, and Society: A Managerial Perspective, Text and Cases (New York, McGraw-Hill, 13th edn, 2012), 4.
  • See “Harmonious Society Concept Draws World Attention”, People's Daily, available at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200512/14/eng20051214_227940.html.
  • P Li, “Scholar Explores Harmonious Society Concept”, available at http://www.china.org.cn/english/2005/Mar/121746.htm.
  • Anthony, supra n 11, 31.
  • Li, supra n 24.
  • See “Communiqué of the Sixth Plenum of the Sixteenth CPC Central Committee”, People's Daily, available at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200610/12/eng20061012_310923.html.
  • For more discussions on stakeholders see RE Freeman, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Boston, Pitman, 1984); B Mescher, “The Law, Stakeholders and Ethics: Their Role in Corporate Governance” (2011) 8 Macquarie Journal of Business Law 37; MBE Clarkson, MC Deck and NJ Shiner, “The Stakeholder Management Model in Practice” paper presented at the 1992 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Las Vegas, NV; P Goldenberg, “IALS Company Lecture—Shareholder v Stakeholders: the Bogus Argument” (1998) The Company Lawyer 33; K Mitchell, BR Agle and DJ Wood, “Toward A Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What Really Counts” (1997) 22 Academy of Management Review 853; M Evan and RE Freeman, “A Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation” in M Snoeyenbos, R Almeder and J Humber (eds), Business Ethics (New York, Prometheus Books, 3rd edn, 2001).
  • WT Woo, “Reframing China Policy: The Carnegie Debates; Debate 2: China's Economy—Arguing for the Motion” (Beijing, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Central University of Finance and Economics/Washington DC, Brookings Institution/University of California, Davis, 2006).
  • For more discussions on the International Organisation for Standardization, see the website at http://www.iso.org/iso.
  • For more information on the roundtable see the Sino-German Corporate Social Responsibility Project website at http://www.chinacsrproject.org/News_Show_EN.asp?ID=90.
  • ISO 26000: Guidance on Social Responsibility (ISO, 2010), ch 6.
  • Ibid.
  • Darigan and Post, supra n 8, 39.
  • Ibid, 40.
  • J Bakan, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (London, Constable & Robinson, 2004), 31.
  • J Dean, “Stakeholding and Company Law” (2001) 22 Company Lawyer 66, 66–67; see also M Stokes, “Company Law and Legal Theory” in W Twining (ed), Legal Theory and Common Law (Oxford, Blackwell, 1986), 155; D Millon, “Theories of the Corporation” (1990) 193 Duke Law Journal 20; M Horwitz, “Santa Clara Revisited: The Development of Corporate Theory” (1985) 88 West Virginia Law Review 173.
  • JE Parkinson, Corporate Power and Responsibility: Issues in the Theory of Company Law (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993), 23.
  • D Huang, Y Kong and Z Hua, “Symposium on China's Peaceful Development and International Law” (2006) Chinese Journal of International Law 261, 268.
  • See D Karlsson, “Corporate Social Responsibility: A Tool for Creating a Harmonious Society in China” (Brussels, European Institute for Asian Studies, 2011); see also MH Jensen, “Serve the People! Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in China” (Copenhagen, Asian Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School, 2006).
  • B Tricker, Corporate Governance: Principles, Policies, and Practices (Oxford University Press, 2009), 352.
  • S Cooper, Corporate Social Performance: A Stakeholder Approach (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004), 13.
  • NA Shankman, “Reframing the Debate between Agency and Stakeholder Theories of the Firm” (1999) 19 Journal of Business Ethics 319.
  • See the ideas and approaches suggested by Chen and Hu: K Chen, “The Importance of Building a Civilised Society in Building a Harmonious Society” (2006) 33 Minjian 1; A Hu, “China in 2020: Comprehensive Well-off and the Goal of A Socialist Harmonious Society” in J Zhou, A Hu and S Wang (eds), Building a Harmonious Society: The Experiences of Europe and The Exploration of China (Beijing, Tsinghau University Press, 2007), 165.
  • KM Chan, “Harmonious Society” in HK Anheier and S Toepler, International Encyclopedia of Civil Society (New York, Springer, 2010), 821–23.
  • See “Wen Jiabao Attends Welcoming Luncheon of American Friendly Organizations and Delivers Speech on China—US Relations”, available at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjdt/zyjh/t514790.htm.
  • See “Wen Jiabao Criticised Milk Clenbuterol: A Serious Moral Decline”, available at http://www.cnkeyword.info/wen-jiabao-criticized-milk-clenbuterol-a-serious-moral-decline.
  • Xinhua News Agency, “News Analysis: China Looks to Central SOEs to back Low-income Housing Project”, 5 May 2011, available at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-05/05/c_13860819.htm; in particular, the Premier issued a moral sermon towards real estate developers, stating that “as members of society, real estate developers should have social responsibilities and moral blood”. He reaffirmed that “within the body of every businessman should flow the blood of morality”.
  • Fannon, supra n 9, 3; see also O Hart, “Norms and the Theory of the Firm” (2001) University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1701.
  • K Howell, “Introduction to DTI, Business and Society: Developing CSR in the UK” (DTI (now BIS), March 2001), 1. Around 50% of FTSE-100 companies published formal environmental reports in 2000, and this figure has increased steadily in recent years.
  • For more discussion on the corporate objectives of social welfare and total wealth creation, see G Kelly and J Parkinson, “The Conceptual Foundation of the Company: A Pluralist Approach” in J Parkinson, A Gamble and G Kelly (eds), The Political Economy of the Company (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2000), 113, 131.
  • D McBarnet, “Corporate Social Responsibility beyond Law, through Law, for Law: The New Corporate Accountability” in D McBarnet, A Voiculescu and T Campbell (eds), The New Corporate Accountability: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 9, 12.
  • F Martin, “Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Policy” in R Mullerate (ed), Corporate Social Responsibility: The Corporate Governance of the 21st Century (London, Kluwer Law International, 2005), 77, 78.
  • See JE Kerr, “The Creative Capitalism Spectrum: Evaluating Corporate Social Responsibility through a Legal Liens” (2008) Temple Law Review 831; JE Kerr, “A New Era of Responsibility: A Modern American Mandate For Corporate Social Responsibility” (2009) 78 UMKC Law Review 327; JE Kerr, “Sustainability Meet Profitability: The Convenient Truth of How the Business Judgment Rules Protect a Board's Decisions to Engage in Social Entrepreneurship” (2007) Cardozo Law Review 623; J Zhao, “Modernising Corporate Objective Debate towards a Hybrid Model” (2011) 62 Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 361; J Zhao, “Promoting More Socially Responsible Corporations through UK Company Law after the 2008 Financial Crisis: The Turning of the Crisis Compass” (2011) International Commercial and Company Law Review 275; K Buhmann, “Corporate Social Responsibility” (2006) 6 Corporate Governance 188; B Choudhury, “Serving Two Masters: Incorporating Social Responsibility into the Corporate Paradigm” (2008) 11 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law 631; C Parker, “Meta-regulation: Legal Accountability for Corporate Social Responsibility” in McBarnet et al., supra n 52; McBarnet, supra n 52, 9; B Horrigan, “21st Century Corporate Social Responsibility Trends—An Emerging Comparative Body of Law and Regulation on Corporate Responsibility, Governance, and Sustainability” (2007) 4 Macquarie Journal of Business Law 85.
  • Buhmann, Ibid, 199.
  • McBarnet, supra n 52, 9, 11.
  • Ibid, 31.
  • Ibid.
  • Steiner and Steiner, supra n 22, 42.
  • Ibid, 41.
  • Buhmann, supra n 54, 199.
  • OECD, “OECD Principles of Corporate Governance” (2004) available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/18/31557724.pdf, 2.
  • A Winkler, “Corporate Law or the Law of Business? Stakeholders and Corporate Governance at the End of History” (2004) 67 Law & Contemporary Problems 109, 111.
  • See Labour Contract Law of China 2008, Art 14.
  • Z Zhe, “Toward Harmonious Society through Rule of Law”, China Daily, 10 March 2008.
  • Approved by the Second Session of the Tenth National People's Congress.
  • See Constitution of the People's Republic of China, Art 33.
  • Chinese Criminal Law 1997, Art 48.
  • “Guidelines on Corporate Governance of Commercial Banks in China (Consultative Document)” (August 2011) Art 5.
  • Ibid, Art 7.
  • Ibid, Art 70.
  • C Keinert, Corporate Social Responsibility as an International Strategy (Heidelberg, Physica-Verlag, 2008) 90.
  • “Guidelines on Corporate Governance of Commercial Banks in China (Consultative Document)”, Art 77.
  • Ibid, Art 80.
  • J Zhao, “‘Promoting More Socially Responsible Corporations through UK Company Law after the 2008 Financial Crisis: Turning of the Crisis Compass' (2011) 9 International Commercial and Company Law Review 275, 283–84.
  • S Zambon and A Del Bello, “Towards a Stakeholder Responsible Approach: The Constructive Role of Reporting” (2005) 5 Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society 130.
  • C Pedamon, “Corporate Social Responsibility: A New Approach to Promoting Integrity and Responsibility” (2010) Company Lawyer 172 at 172.
  • CC Pinney, “Why China Will Define the Future Corporate Citizenship” (Centre For Corporate Citizenship, Boston College, Carroll School of Management, 2008), available at http://www.bcccc.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPageandPageID=1905.
  • B Horrigan, “21st Century Corporate Social Responsibility Trends—An Emerging Comparative Body of Law and Regulation on Corporate Responsibility, Governance, and Sustainability” (2007) 4 Macquarie Journal of Business Law 85, 85.
  • See J Elkington, Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of the 21st Century Business (Stony Creek, CT, New Society Publishers, 1998).
  • C Nakajima, “The Importance of Legally Embedding Corporate Social Responsibility” (2011) Company Lawyer 257, 257.
  • X Huang, Corporate Social Responsibility: Theory and Practice in China (Bejing, Social Science Academic Press), 190–91; see also JH Liu, “Some Thinking about Strengthening CSR” in J Lou and P Gan, Studies on Corporate Social Responsibility (Beijing, Peking University Press, 2009), 199; J Shi and W Yang, “Legal Reanalysis of CSR” in Lou and Gan, Ibid, 243.
  • M Feng, Z Chen and Z Wang, Corporate Social Responsibility in China in a Harmonious Society (Beijing, Economic Science Press, 2009), 46–48.
  • J Liu, Corporate Social Responsibility (Beijing, Law Press, 1999), 85–86.
  • LW Lin, “Corporate Social Responsibility in China: Window Dressing or Structural Change” (2010) Berkeley Journal of International Law 64, 67.
  • PB Potter, “Co-ordinating Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility” (2009) 39 Hong Kong Law Journal 675, 686.
  • See T Macalister, “A Change in the Climate: Credit Crunch Makes the Bottom Line the Top Issue”, The Guardian, 6 March 2008; BF Souto, “Crisis and Corporate Social Responsibility: Threat or Opportunity?” (2009) 2 International Journal of Economic and Applied Research 36.
  • Xinhua News Agency, ‘Social Responsibility Helps Business Fight Crisis', 9 April 2009, available at http://www.china.org.cn/china/opinion/2009-04/09/content_17578054.htm
  • J Zhao, “The Regulation and Steering of Corporate Social Responsibility in China: Stories after the Enforcement of Chinese Company Law” (2011) International Commercial and Company Law Review 400, 401.
  • L Zhou and Z He, “On Corporate Social Responsibility ‘Beyond Law' in China” (2009) 4 Frontiers of Law in China 457, 460.
  • AB Carroll, “The Pyramid of CSR: Toward the Moral Management of Organizational Stakeholders” (1991) 34 Business Horizons 39, 40–41.
  • Zhao, supra n 89, 402.
  • W Zhang, Jurisprudence in China (Beijing, Higher Education Press, 2007), 272; the formal interpretation to law in China can be divided into legislative or statutory interpretation, administrative interpretation and judicial interpretation; the most highly regarded interpretations will be the “Judicial Interpretations of the Supreme People's Court”.
  • J Lou, “A Literal Interpretation of Article 5, Clause 1 of China's Corporate Law and its Approach of Performance” in Lou and Gan, supra n 82, 224.
  • L Miles, “Chinese Corporate Governance: but What about the Workers?” (2011) Company Law Newsletter 1, 2.
  • Lin, supra n 85, 68; see CCL 1994, Arts 45, 52, 55, 56, 62, 121 and 122.
  • CCL 2006, Art 17, 18, 52, 117, 118 and 126.
  • Zhao, supra n 89.
  • CCL, Art 45.
  • CCL 2006, Art 18.
  • Ibid.
  • Ibid.
  • CCL 2006, Art 52.
  • Ibid, Art 54(2).
  • Ibid, Art 54(6).
  • Ibid.
  • L Miles, “Chinese Corporate Governance: But What About the Workers?” (2011) Company Law Newsletter 1, 4; X Chao, “In Search of an Effective Monitoring Board Model: Board Reforms and the Political Economy of Corporate Law in China” (2006) 22 Connecticut Journal of International Law 1.
  • CCL 2006, Arts 45 and 109.
  • J Zhao and S Wen, “Promoting Stakeholders' Interests in the Unique Chinese Corporate Governance Model: More Socially Responsible Corporations?” (2010) International Company and Commercial Law Review 373, 380.
  • CCL 2006, Art 1.
  • For more discussions about stakeholders' interests and CSR in China see Zhao, “Modernising Corporate Objective Debate” supra n 54; Q Bu, “China's New Approach to CSR in Congo: Is the Leverage Turning to China” (2010) International Business Law Journal 485; for a discussion on corporate responsibility reports in China see AJ Sulkowski, SP Parashar and L Wei, “Corporate Responsibility Reporting in China, India, Japan and the West, Japan, and the West: One Mantra Does not Fit All” (2007–08) New English Law Review 787.
  • Z Xu and N Liu, “Research on Win—Win Management Control Mode of CSR Based on Society Harmony and Corporate Sustainable Development” in Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Management Science and Engineering, available at http://www.bmtfi.com/upload/product/200910/2008glhy02a19.pdf.
  • See W Valentino “Corporate Social Responsibility and Innovation”, speech of at the 27th China Daily CEO Roundtable Luncheon, available at http://ceoroundtable.chinadaily.com.cn/cdrt/cdrt27/CSRBEGINS.html.
  • There will of course be advantages and disadvantages to this approach, and the related arguments are worthy of future research; for a good discussion of the state-centric relational approach and society-centric governance, see S Bell and A Hindmoor, Rethinking Governance: The Centrality of the State in Modern Society (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 1–20.
  • See Confucius (Kongzi), The Confucian Analects; it is argued that “Fu yu gui, shi ren zhi suo yu ye, bu yi qi dao de zhi, bu chu ye” [“Wealth and being rich is desired by everyone. However, ideal man should get it responsibly”].
  • G Whelan, “Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia: A Confucian Context” in S May, G Cheney and J Roper (eds), The Debate over Corporate Social (Oxford University Press, 2007), 105.
  • L Zu, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Restructuring and Firm's Performance (Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 2009), 45.
  • supra n 28. For some examples demonstrating the acceptance of the term in major academic writings see Alkhafaji, supra n 8; JW Anderson, Corporate Social Responsibilities (New York, Quorum Books, 1984); Brummer, supra n 8; Brenner and Molander, supra n 8; Clarkson et al., supra n 28; Goodpaster, supra n 8.
  • Freeman, supra n 28, 31–32.
  • Carroll, supra n 8, 57; see also A Santana, “Three Elements of Stakeholder Legitimacy” (2012) 105 Journal of Business Ethics 257; R Phillips, “Stakeholder Legitimacy” (2003) 13 Business Ethics Quarterly 25.
  • M Clarkson, “A Risk Based Model of Stakeholder Theory” in Proceedings of the Second Toronto Conference on Stakeholder Theory (Toronto, Centre for Corporate Social Performance and Ethics, University of Toronto, 1994).
  • For more discussions on the collaborations see J Tsoi, “Stakeholder Perceptions and Future Scenarios to Improve Corporate Social Responsibility in Hong Kong and Mainland of China” (2010) 95 Journal of Business Ethics 391, 392–93.
  • I Carr and O Outhwaite, “Controlling Corruption through Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance: Theory and Practice” (2011) 11 Journal of Corporate Law Studies 299, 315.
  • “Corporate Governance Assessment Summary Report of the 100 Top Chinese Listed Companies for 2011”, available at http://www.protiviti.com/zh-CN/Headlines/Documents/CN-2011-Corporate-Governance-Survey.pdf.
  • Ibid, 2.
  • These include “shareholders' rights”, “fairness to shareholders”, “role of stakeholders in corporate governance”, “information disclosure and transparency”, “responsibilities of board of directors” and “responsibilities of board of supervisors”; see OECD, supra n 62.
  • From 21.0 in the 2006 assessment, 24.9 in the 2007 assessment, 27.3 in the 2008 assessment, 34.2 in the 2009 assessment and 55.6 in the 2010 assessment. The general improvement rate is 12.48%, with a 61.35% improvement for “shareholders' rights”, 2.47% improvement for “fairness to shareholders”, 179.05% improvement for “role of stakeholders in corporate governance”, 4.46% deterioration for “information disclosure and transparency”, 24.84% improvement for “responsibilities of board of directors” and 30.15% improvement for “responsibilities of board of supervisors”.
  • Centre for Corporate Governance, etc, supra n 124.
  • Dean, supra n 37, 69.
  • See Section 172, Companies Act 2006; see also A Keay, The Enlightened Shareholder Value Principle and Corporate Governance (London, Routledge, 2012).
  • Zhao, supra n 89, 403–04.
  • H Li, “Don't Hate the Rich, Be One of Them”, People's Daily, 2 April 2009.
  • Xinhua News Agency, supra n 88.
  • See Lin, supra n 85, 67–81; Zhao, supra n 89, 402–25.
  • J Sarkis, N Li and Q Zhu, “Winds of Change: Corporate Social Responsibility in China” [2011 January—February] Ivey Business Journal 1, 1.
  • Lin, supra n 85, 96.
  • According to Art 1 of the Labour Contract Law of China 2008: “This Law has been formulated to improve and perfect the labour contract system, to make explicit the rights and obligations of both parties of the labour contract, to protect the lawful rights and interests of labourers and to build and develop harmonious and stable labour relationships”.
  • Chinese Labour Contract Law 2008, ss 12, 14 and 15.
  • B Wu and Y Zheng, “A Long March to Improve Labour Standards in China: Chinese Debates on the New Labour Contract Law”, The University of Nottingham China Policy Institute Briefing Series Issue 39, 8.
  • Xinhua News Agent, “CNOOC: Oil Leak in Bohai Bay Sealed”, 25 October 2011.
  • Marine Environment Protection Law of China 1983, Art 5.
  • Ibid, Art 41.
  • Knowledge Wharton, “Corporate Social Responsibility in China: One Great Leap Forward, Many More Still Ahead”, 29 April 2010.
  • Positively, the Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges have taken environmental disclosure on board and released a “Guide to Listed Companies' Social Responsibility” by Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and a “Guide to Environmental Information Disclosure for Companies Listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange”.
  • See Ministry of Environmental Protection of People's Republic of China, “Shoubu Huanjing Xinxi Gongkai Banfa Chutai Qiangzhi Huanbao Bumen he Wuran Qiye Gongkai Huanjing Xinxi: PanYue Huyu yi Gongzhong Shendu Canyu Tuidong Wuran Panjian” [“The Introduction of the First Regulation on Environmental Disclosure and Enforcement of Information Disclosure for Environmental Agencies and Heavy-Pollution Companies: Mr Yue Pan is appealing for In-depth Public Participation to Minimised Pollution and Emission”], 25 April 2008.
  • “China Jails Tainted Milk Activist Zhao Lianhai”, BBC News Asia-Pacific, 10 November 2010.
  • Chinese Criminal Law 1997, s 293.
  • “China to Execute Two over Poisoned Baby Milk Scandal”, The Guardian World News, 22 January 2009.
  • “China Court Jails Father of ‘Tainted Milk Child'”, The Guardian World News, 22 January 2009.
  • For more discussions on political interference and CSR, see PA Gourevitch and J Shinn, Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of Corporate Governance (Princeton University Press), chs 4 and 6; W Li and R Zhang, “Corporate Social Responsibility, Ownership Structure, and Political Interference: Evidence from China” (2010) 96 Journal of Business Ethics 631; YL Cheung, W Tan and Z Zhang, “Does Corporate Social Responsibility Matter in Asia Emerging Market?” (2010) 92 Journal of Business Ethics 401; H Li, L Meng, Q Wang and L Zhou, “Political Connections, Financing and Firm Performance: Evidence from Chinese Private” (2008) 87 Journal of Development Economics 283.
  • China Decoded: Culture, News, and Stories from China, “Still Toxic: Father Protecting China Tainted Milk Scandal Jailed” (November 18 2010) available at http://www.chinadecoded.com/2010/11/18/still-toxic-father-protesting-china-tainted-milk-scandal-jailed/ (last accessed on 26 November 2011); See also H Xie and K Du, “Proposal for the case of Zhao Lianhai from National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference”, available at http://www.chinaelections.org/newsinfo.asp?newsid=207026 (last accessed on 26 November 2011).
  • For the unique corporate governance model in China, see OK Tam, “Ethical Issues in the Evolution of Corporate Governance in China” (2002) Journal of Business Ethics 303; Zhao and Wen, supra n 109, 377–78; M Yan, “Obstacles in China's Corporate Governance” (2011) Company Lawyer 311.
  • Zu, supra n 117, 301.
  • X Wang, “Government Function on Cultivating CSR—A Thinking on Loss of Truck Fence” (2010) 5 International Journal of Business and Management 162, 164.
  • For more discussion on CSR, corporate governance and political interference see C Shi, The Political Determinants of Corporate Governance in China (London, Routledge, 2012).
  • L Albareda, JM Lozano, A Tencati, A Midttun and F Perrini, “The Changing Role of government in Corporate Social Responsibility: Drivers and Responses” (2008) 17 Business Ethics: A European Review 347, 359.
  • Ibid, 360; see also DA Detomasi, “The Multinational Corporation and Global Governance: Modelling Global Public Policy Network” (2007) 71 Journal of Business Ethics 321; J Moon, “Business Social Responsibility and New Governance” (2002) 37 Government and Opposition 385.
  • Wang, supra n 154, 164.
  • Darigan and Post, supra n 8, 45; JM Burns, GR Goethals and G Sorenson (eds), Encyclopedia of Leadership (Minneapolis, Sage, 2004).
  • Howell, supra n 50, 1; around 50% of FTSE-100 companies published formal environmental reports in 2000, and this figure has increased steadily in recent years.
  • CA Williams and JM Conley, “An Emerging Third Way? The Erosion of the Anglo-American Shareholder Value Construct” (2005) 38 Cornell International Law Journal 493.
  • J Cramer (ed), Corporate Social Responsibility and Globalisation: An Action Plan for Business (Sheffield, Greenleaf Publishing, 2006), 68–71.

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