Multinational Corporations Violating China's Environmental Laws and Regulations

[YankeyMCC]

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Over the last three years, the Chinese government has punished 33 multinational corporations for violating the nation’s environmental laws and regulations, according to Ma Jun, director of the nongovernmental Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs. Ma’s announcement in September came as a surprise to many, as the Chinese public has tended to assume that multinational companies abide more strictly by the law than some in fact do in this heavily polluted country.

The exposed companies include subsidiaries of world-renowned corporations such as American Standard, Panasonic, Pepsi, Nestle, and 3M. They were punished mainly for discharges of substandard waste water and for unauthorized construction activities that occurred in the absence of proper environmental impact assessments.
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What concerns environmentalists more, however, is the weak governmental and legal oversight of multinational corporations. Lo observes that as local governments seek to attract foreign investment, their affiliated environmental protection bureaus dare not take strict measures to address pollution by multinational corporations. He also believes that since multinational corporations typically perform better than domestic enterprises environmentally, the sub-par activities of foreign companies won’t attract the attention of the country’s top environmental authority, the State Environmental Protection Administration. This leaves a void in supervision.
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William Valentino, general manager for corporate communications for Bayer Corporation and the chair of the Corporate Social Responsibility Working Group of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, agrees that the poor environmental performance of domestic enterprises should not be used as an excuse for multinationals. “Talk about home electronic appliances, Chinese people will think of Sony; talk about soft drinks, they will think of Coca Cola. As an international enterprise trusted by the Chinese people, one is obliged to bear more responsibilities,” Valentino says.
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http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4764