Ninety-five per cent of Chinese companies “do no charitable work whatsoever”, Steven Schwankert told Ethical Corporation’s recent Asia conference.

This gulf in action between local and international companies provides foreign brands with an opportunity to improve their reputations in China via corporate social responsibility programmes, which he sees purely as an offshoot of public relations.

Schwankert referred to a few examples of good and bad practice. He noted the example of an oil company working with the ministry of education in China to promote sustainability issues in schools, such as why disposable chopsticks are a bad idea. On the negative side, he said, one US company’s idea of corporate responsibility in China is to “hand over a million dollars to a random Chinese NGO with no transparency” in order to get the chief executive on the cover of China Daily.

Please login to view whole article - or subscribe here.
For a free two week trial to Ethical Corporation online, please click here.