Practice and Outlook of China's Regulation on the Extraterritorial Human Rights Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations

As China’s overseas investment and business operations continue to expand, the issue of human rights risks faced by Chinese transnational corporations abroad has attracted sustained attention from society. In recent years, China has enacted a series of laws,regulations, and policies to better regulate the overseas business conduct of transnational corporations, urging them to respect the human rights of the people in host countries and fulfill their social responsibilities to achieve sustainable development. Meanwhile, China has actively participated in the formulation of the Legally Binding Instrument on Activities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises in International Human Rights Law, providing a Chinese solution to promote global governance of transnational corporations.However, in practice, the lack of institutional mechanisms, systems,and industry rules to supervise and guide transnational enterprises in fulfilling their human rights responsibilities, as well as the limited awareness of human rights risks among these enterprises, have resulted in ongoing human rights risks in their overseas business operations, particularly regarding labor rights and environmental rights. In response, China should take its national conditions into consideration and focus on the development trends of human rights issues in the business sector at the international level. Drawing on the experiences of other countries, China should explore and establish institutional and practical measures to regulate the human rights responsibilities of transnational enterprises through legislation, administration, and judiciary actions, in order to address the risks and challenges faced by Chinese enterprises in foreign investments and contribute to the sustainable development of the world and global human rights governance.