Corporate Social Responsibility in der chinesischen Textilindustrie: Unternehmerische Verantwortung chinesischer Prägung

Abstract

Within the past couple of years Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has enjoyed growing attention by China public and private sector. When the concept was introduced to China by western companies and international organizations in the 1990s, the Chinese government at first regarded CSR as hindrance to its national economy. Only recently did the government start to apply the concept for domestic as well as international purposes. This paper analyses the introduction of CSR to an industry highly affected by the concept's emergence - namely the Chinese textile and apparel industry. Apart from laying bare how CSR is applied in the Chinese context, the paper explains how the concept is integrated into the industry's restructuring process and how the Chinese government is attempting to handle the challenge of poor working conditions in the industry by passing the problem on to the private sector and the society. At present, CSR only has a limited influence on the amelioration of working conditions in China. While positive effects that have been achieved in several companies should be acknowledged, they should not divert the gaze from still urgently needed construction of effective regulation.