The China Code: An Analysis of China's National Social Standards for the Textile and Apparel Industry

The China Social Compliance for Textile and Apparel (CSC 9000 T) is the first country and sector specific social standard in the world, established by the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the CSC 9000T by comparing the extent of its coverage and its implementation vis-à-vis another popular international standard, the SA 8000, and two company level codes of conduct, namely Nike and Inditex. The comparison allows an analysis that considers a universal versus a national code, a comprehensive versus a sectoral code, and a western-based versus an Asianbased code of conduct. Our results provide justifications as to why the CSC 9000 T is a code that should be given attention by the relevant protagonists as it is based on more systematic interventions to tackle the root causes of poor compliance in Chinese reality and has a higher degree of legitimacy due to its backing from China's social institutions and agencies.