Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Taxation – Chinese Policy and Practice

Abstract

International organisations, corporations and governments, including the Chinese
government, have come to support both the concepts of the responsibility of business
enterprises to adopt and implement codes of corporate social responsibility (‘CSR’),
and of the need for businesses to act in an ethical fashion. Thus, in China, the
government and its agencies, including the Chinese stock exchanges, actively
encourage the adoption by Chinese corporations of codes of social responsibility and
the conduct of business in compliance with standards of social and business ethics.
Chinese regulatory requirements in relation to ethical conduct and the implementation
of principles of social responsibility for enterprise and corporations are specifically
extended to the operations of Chinese companies, both state-owned and private,
outside China. The content and substance of ethical conduct in the business context
and the relationship of ethics to concepts of corporate or enterprise social
responsibility is, however, difficult to define. One aspect which is of increasing
interest is the relationship between corporate ethical responsibilities, CSR and
taxation. The purpose of this article is to look at the international and Chinese
concepts of ethics and CSR, primarily as manifested in Chinese legislation and
regulation, with a focus on the role of tax and tax policy in requirements relating to
business ethics and social responsibility