"Since the “Going Out Policy” was initiated in 1999 by the Chinese Government to promote Chinese investments abroad, the footprint of Chinese enterprises has expanded considerably. This has been further accelerated by President Xi Jinping’s launch of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)1 in 2013, after which China committed to work “together with other countries to foster the environmentally-friendly and sound development of the Belt and Road, featuring peace and the exchange of wisdom, and to build a global economy more vibrant, open, inclusive, stable and sustainable.”2 These efforts have facilitated a massive expansion of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI), which is valuable as developing countries need FDI to boost their development. To support these overseas development goals, the Chinese Government, state agencies and business associations continue to issue a growing matrix of policies, regulations and guidelines to establish social and environmental safeguards for its FDI. In regulating the diverse economic activities of private and state-owned enterprises overseas, these documents seek to reinforce social integrity, environmental protection, workplace and personnel safety, among many other goals. As Chinese businesses – particularly energy, construction, and mining and metals companies – continue to venture abroad3 , civil society and the media have reported an unfortunate increase in social, environmental and human rights violations – particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America (See Section 3.1). All FDI from any country must now be informed by and directed to meet the twin challenge of addressing worsening inequality of power and wealth, while also tackling the challenges associated with climate change. It is therefore important for Chinese companies to ensure they address these issues. Between 2013 and 2020, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (Resource Centre) recorded 679 human rights abuse allegations linked to Chinese business conduct abroad, and 102 company responses to these allegations. In analysing the data further, this report intends to support civil society organisations in host countries of Chinese investments to make informed decisions about their advocacy for responsible business conduct of Chinese companies. This report also presents data and analysis to assist businesses, investors, the Chinese Government and governments of states hosting Chinese investments to take further action to fulfil the development commitments related to China’s international economic cooperation4 and the responsible business conduct guidelines established through the years..."