Archives of Peking University News - PKU English - 北京大学

北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
situation in today‘s China? Are there any achievements or failures?
Liu Peng: Chinese corporations during its development are having a heightened
awareness of CSR, and many of them have indeed done a lot of work by changing
from purely profit-making organizations into CSR-oriented corporate citizens. This is
a great contribution to building a harmonious society.
The focuses on CSR may vary in different countries according to their levels of
economic and social development. Based on the actualities of Chinese enterprises,
the CSR focuses on the following six points: improving business performance and
strengthening sustainability of corporate development under the conditions of legal
and trust-oriented management and maintenance of a sound market economy order;
protecting legal rights of the employees, building a harmonious and stable working
relationship, consolidating work safety and guaranteeing employees‘ safety and
health. Apart from that, we also need to make more efforts in public welfare
participation and environmental protection by reducing resources consumption, in
order to speed up the construction of a harmonious society.
China Reading Weekly: As we know, in recent years there has been repeated media
reporting about migrant workers demanding delayed payment, and also the latest
reports about the ruthless coal mine owners in Shanxi Province. Does that mean
many Chinese enterprises still lag far behind the fundamental implementation of
CSR principles?
Liu Peng: Despite the overall improvement in the protection of employees‘ legal
rights, problems still exist in some enterprises regarding labor contracts, payment,
length of working hours and work safety. Problems for employers include: refusing to
sign legal contracts or offering unfair ones, deducting or delaying payment, refusing
minimal payment, infinitely extending working hours, paying little or even none for
social security for employees, ignoring employees‘ safety and health. There are even
child labor and forced labor.
China Reading Weekly: How is the relationship between corporate development and
environmental protection perceived from the perspective of CSR?
Liu Peng: Environmental protection and reduction in resource consumption are two
important issues in CSR. In recent years, developed countries are tightening their
laws on environment and health. EU and many other developed countries have
stipulated stricter regulations on harmful pesticide residues in food and agricultural
products, implementing laws regulating the recycling of used electronic appliances,
restricting use of harmful substances in electronic products and tightening
registration, assessment and licensing of chemicals. The mentality behind these
laws is the aim to expend the environmental responsibilities of corporations by
building a closed circle that involves resource development, processing, product
545