CSR and its implementation of global value chain standards is becoming a global concern, yet there are few detailed empirical studies of how these are perceived from the receiving end. To address this gap, in this empirical paper, we study how a Swedish learning tool for workers’ rights, is piloted and how CSR is translated to Chinese suppliers, highlighting their own point of view. We find that the importance of workplace dialogue from Scandinavian buyers is seen as an anomaly by the suppliers. We also find that although both parties are increasingly making use of explicit versions ofCSR, their inner views remain widely different. Thus, we investigate the translations of labour rights occurring from a Swedish to a Chinese setting. We find that there also political concerns involved in this translation, i.e. the updated Swedish labour model for bridging global governance gaps. Resumed, this study constitutes a starting point for further exploration of how workers’rights are translated globally and how regulatory gaps of worker rights can be bridged.