China Unicom

China Unicom contributes to universal digital access by providing discounted services for low-income households.

China Unicom supports educational initiatives for the elderly population. In 2021, the company also sustained efforts to promote school connectivity.

No evidence was found of the company having leading practices in this area.

The company demonstrates its commitment to open innovation through its membership in standards organisations. It also supports open source projects and collaborates with universities. 

The company has an opportunity to support digital opportunities for women and girls. It can also expand its reporting of the accessibility initiatives it undertakes as well as how many people with disabilities it employs. In addition, China Unicom should report how the economic value it generates is distributed among its stakeholders.

The company has an opportunity to develop programmes for providing training in intermediate and technical digital skills.

The company should demonstrate how it assigns oversight and accountability for cybersecurity; monitors, reports and rectifies security incidents; and mitigates digital risks for children.

The company has an opportunity to demonstrate how it supports the tech start-up ecosystem. It can also show how it collaborates on big data for sustainable development and applies ethical considerations in research and development (R&D) activities.

China Unicom does not have a public commitment to respect human rights or the ILO core labour rights. Furthermore, the company does not disclose a process to identify, assess and act on salient human rights risks in its own operations and in its business relationships. The company also does not engage with stakeholders whose human rights have been potentially or actually impacted by its operations. Next to this, the company can provide information on whether it has a grievance mechanism for workers and external stakeholders to raise human rights concerns and complaints.

China Unicom does not provide any relevant information in reference to labour fundamentals such as living wages, working hours or worker health and safety. For example, the company does not publicly commit to respecting the health and safety of workers and is not explicit in stating that it does not require workers to work more than regular and overtime hours. In relation to workforce diversity, while the company provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender, it does not provide employee breakdowns for any other indicators of diversity.   

China Unicom has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, but it does not include anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its business relationship contracts. The company discloses its income tax payments for some of its tax jurisdictions, including Hong Kong and Mainland China, but not for all its individual tax jurisdictions. Furthermore, the company does not disclose a global tax strategy. It also lacks disclosure on lobbying and political engagement.