Mandatory? voluntary? A discussion of corporate environmental disclosure requirements in China

In the face of an increasing Environmental crisis, the Chinese government has released a series of guidelines and regulations related to corporate environmental disclosure in recent years. However, the distinction between mandatory and voluntary disclosure, when considering China, is still problematic and a clear understanding of what is required by law and what is purely voluntary does not appear to exist in many studies of the region. As most researchers apply a simplistic classification, this leads to confusion and contradictions between studies. This paper outlines the complexities of the regulatory system in China and attempts to provide direction on how the term voluntary disclosure should be used when studying corporate environmental reporting in China.