Coalitions gain trust of authorities
Corporate social responsibility is a vexing question in China because the authorities rarely tolerate any behaviour that organises individuals into a group and gives them an independent voice. Responding to an immediate environmental crisis, such as flooding or an earthquake, is clearly less politically charged than promoting certain social issues.
The lesson here, according to Kelly Lau and Felicia Pullum at APCO Asia in Beijing, a corporate communications consultancy, is to create large business coalitions that can gain the trust of the authorities.
Social campaigns will only be tolerated if they have a clearly defined and non-threatening focus. The international Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids (GBS), for example, hosted a joint summit on business and Aids with the Chinese Ministry of Health last March,
with more than 100 companies taking part.
The summit was a success because the coalition has strong ties with government organisations and the authorities share the coalition's goal of Aids prevention and control.
Under GBS' remit, a number of foreign companies play an increasingly active role in HIV/Aids prevention. Anglo American, a British-based natural resources company and a prominent member of GBS, provides HIV training to every member of its China-based staff.
A company subsidiary also worked with the local government in Wuxi , a prosperous town in Jiangsu province that is a magnet for migrant workers, on an Aids awareness campaign.
And German pharmaceutical firm Bayer, another GBS member, co-founded a public health and HIV/Aids programme at Beijing's Tsinghua University in 2004 to research the media's role in creating public health awareness.
