ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that, even though China's economy is now moving towards being more market oriented, decision-making in corporations is still largely driven by the Chinese government. It reviews the Chinese governments Green Policy and the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information (MDEI), as well as the research on corporate environmental reporting (CER) with a focus on state capitalism theory. The chapter finds that while CER among major Chinese firms increased dramatically in 2008 in line with the introduction of the MDEI, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) performed much better than non-SOEs, both before and after the MDEI was introduced. The chapter argues that CER in China is more top-down and centrally driven by the state as compared to the experience of developed countries and that legislation like the MDEI has had an impact on CER. In a state capitalist economy, the state's political power on CER is far stronger than it is in a country under liberal capitalism.
