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Abstract: Multinational firms such as Apple Inc. have accomplished environmental colonialism in China through the transfer of ecological costs to the local environment. This paper discusses ambiguities in China's environmental legislation and supervision, Apple's business model, and "green washing." Further, we have identified countermeasures such as the encouraging Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs), streamlining litigation procedures, increasing fines, and the development of nonprofit media organizations.
Key words: Apple Inc., environment colonialism, coping strategies
JEL Classifications: Q56, F23, K32
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)
Environmental colonialism refers to the transfer of environmentally harmful elements in the industrial chain from developed to developing countries in capital flows through economic globalization. Taking advantage of local regulatory loopholes, multinational firms are able to maximize their profits without bearing the additional costs of environmental damage1. Simply speaking, developed countries exploit or freely transfer the ecological manufacturing costs to developing countries through capital exports. Compared with military occupation, resource exploitation and the forced labor of early expansionism, environmental colonialism is concealed and hypocritical. The result of environmental colonialism has tainted the reputation of developing countries. Western media describe China as the "world factory" and believe that "China has polluted the world."2 The death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs has re-inspired this topic. Over the theme of "the other side of Apple"3, multiple media or environmental organizations have exposed the unjust nature of such international divisions of labor. Using Apple as an example of pollution caused in China, this paper presents an in-depth discussion on the causes of and countermeasures against environmental colonialism by Western multinational IT groups.
1. Indications of Apple's Environmental Colonialism in China
Apple is a mobile devices company headquartered in Cupertino, California, USA, yet maintains no factory of its own. Its core business is software development and product design, with its hardware manufacturing outsourced to Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) factories mostly in developing countries. Apple has completed its environmental colonialism by leaving the ecological expenses of its manufacturing processes at those sites with no cost to the company (see the flowchart of Apple's environmental colonialism).
Through this process, Apple has extracted high profits and left environmental scars. In the Greater China region (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), Apple's first quarter revenue for 2011 reached USD2.6...