This article traces the evolution of China’s policies aimed at promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable investments, while assessing the extent to which its regulatory regime has succeeded in influencing the investment strategies of Chinese national companies across the developing world, specifically in Africa and the Mekong region. In an attempt to improve its international reputation, the Chinese government has stepped up its initiatives in recent years to oversee the practices of Chinese companies abroad and reorient the country’s policies towards greater corporate responsibility. But while promising, these efforts have been largely impeded by weak policy implementation. As evinced from the African mining sector and the Mekong’s hydropower industry, the diversity of corporate actors and their relative autonomy in making investment decisions, combined with lax governance in host countries and a long-standing concern with national development, have worked to hinder the effective regulation of Chinese overseas investments. Yet, that China, as a new country of origin of ODI, and Chinese firms are now making commitments to CSR and sustainability remains significant, indicating an important development in the country’s “Going Global” strategy.
負責任地走向世界？中國的“可持續”海外投資策略
本文追溯中國在促進企業社會責任和可持續投資方面政策的演變，並評估其監管制度在影響中國國有企業在發展中國家特別是在非洲和湄公河地區的投資策略方面的成功程度。為了提高其國際聲譽，中國政府近年來已加緊對中國公司國外實踐的監督，其國家政策也在走向更強調企業責任的方向。雖然這些政策前景可觀，其努力在很大程度上被軟弱的政策執行力度所阻礙。在非洲的採礦業和湄公河的水電行業的事例表明，企業的多元性及其在投資決定上的相對自主性，宿主國家寬鬆的管理及其對國家長期發展的關注，阻礙了對中國海外投資的有效規範。然而，中國作為一個新的對外直接投資國家，其中國企業對企業社會責任及可持續性的承諾仍然很值得關注，這表明了該國在“走向世界”的戰略中的一個重要的進步。
Translated from English by Xin Huang
Christelle Maurin