The growing presence of Western universities in China raises clear issues of universities’ corporate social responsibility. Beginning in July 2015, the Chinese government embarked on what many see as a crackdown on the human rights community. Amnesty International has documented 240 cases of lawyers, legal activists and human rights defenders who have been arrested, secretly detained, and in some cases tortured. The Chinese parliament also enacted new laws that give police legal authority to arrest NGO workers who engage in work deemed ‘politically sensitive.’ In March 2017, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court characterized the arrests and detentions as a helpful means to eliminate security and subversion from the country. Observers see the government actions as part of a campaign to silence critics of the Communist Party regime.
What is the corporate social responsibility of Western universities in such circumstances? The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights provide a framework for answering this question, but it does not appear that these universities are following it.
US institutions have the highest number of campuses, at 12, followed by Britain with four and Germany with three.
