Introduction

Due to the resource- and labor-intensive and highly polluting features, the need for sustainable development of the textile and apparel (T&A) industry has been attracting much attention worldwide. Poor labor conditions are often reported in many developing economies vying for shares of the world textile and apparel exports. In addition, environmental threats, as from the energy-intensive fiber manufacturing, hazardous effluents from dyeing and finishing, and large landfilled wastes due to "overconsumption" of apparel, have captured public interest and been discussed extensively.

As the current leader in producing and exporting textile and apparel, China plays a key role in achieving sustainability in the global T&A industry. According to the World Trade Statistical Review released by the World Trade Organization (WTO), China's textile and apparel exports accounted for respectively 37% and 36% of world T&A exports in 2016 and led world T&A exports in many years before that. However, China's T&A industry has often been criticized for its poor labor conditions and inadequate environmental protection action. For instance, Kane cited some of the major labor problems in China's T&A industry: "absence of freedom of association and collective bargaining", lack of social security protection or benefits for migrant workers, and excessive overtime work. Yuan revealed that Chinese T&A corporations exercise insufficient control over hazardous chemicals and lack systems for proper evaluation of environmental impacts of their operations.

According to Cooke and He, Chinese corporations' sustainability efforts originated with supplier codes of conduct imposed during the mid-1990s by multinational corporations (MNCs) and were promoted later by the Chinese government and Chinese industry associations. Chan and Ross, as cited in Cooke, and He noted that Chinese T&A firms have been facing huge pressure from MNCs to be compliant with both social and environmental requirements. Furthermore, the Chinese government and Chinese industry associations have emphasized the sustainable development of the T&A industry during the recent decades. In fact, according to the 2016–2017 Annual Report on Sustainability of Chinese Textile and Apparel Industry, the 13th 5-Year Plan for the Textile Industry issued by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology identified green development as a major objective for transforming and upgrading China's T&A industry.

Under the pressures described above, Chinese T&A corporations have adopted numerous investment strategies and other measures to enhance their labor and environmental conditions. However, researchers point to the ranking of the T&A industry (12th of 14 examined industries) in social and environmental responsibility performance as evidence that the industry still needs to improve such performance. Then, why do Chinese T&A corporations still have less than satisfactory sustainability performance even after around 20 years of efforts? Yuan surmised that Chinese T&A corporations might not take sustainability seriously and rather view it as a propaganda tool, which led to their arbitrariness in fulfilling social and environmental responsibilities. Yet, whether Yuan view is prevalent or not is not known. In this light, the present study was designed to explore Chinese T&A corporations' perceptions on sustainability, along with their goals toward sustainability and structures to achieve such goals, and then use those results to associate with their sustainability capability.