China CSR

ChinaCSR.com is a website full of news about different ways in which Chinese businesses are engaging in CSR. Recently CSRChina reported on a group of 29 foreign-funded companies from Wuhan who signed up to "a proposal on corporate social responsibility commitment". But what does this exactly mean in the world of top-down driven CSR in China? The report tells us that the "proposal on corporate social responsibility commitment" will include:
"continuously enhancing the consciousness of social responsibility, abiding by relevant laws and doing honest business, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of employees, providing excellent products and services to society, conserving resources and protecting the environment, and actively participating in social welfare and charity undertakings." (Reference) Sounds like good corporate governance rather than a strategic application of CSR.

This is very different to the Western social engagement model of CSR which for some years endured the angst of making the business case for CSR. In China, CSR is not market-oriented and the emphasis is skewed towards good business practice and producing a CSR report. A small number of companies have engaged in cause related marketing promotions such as the Ctrip Green Rewards, but this is not connected to the Chinese version of CSR.

At least ChinaCSR.com includes the idea of "social" whereas the offshore competing site, CSRChina.net seems to only cursorily refer to the social dimensions of corporate responsibility in favour of "sustainability" which is largely interpreted in environmental terms with references to reports such as the China Green Tech Report. CSRChina.net lists CSR topics as: Corporate Reporting, Environment, Energy and Health and Safety. But isn't this just good corporate governance?