Anita Chan - Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective

Analyzing labor conditions comparatively can elicit insights. In the study of Chinese factory labor the focus has been almost entirely on China itself, with scant reference or comparison to workers and work conditions in other countries. The aim of this book is to open up this wider window and through that gain new perspectives that will enable us to better understand the changes underway in China.

The opportunity came when the China Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), developed a program to fund an annual international conference. I took on the responsibility to organize the conference Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective in November 2011. The chapters collected in this book are based on papers originally presented at the conference by scholars from four continents who specialize in Chinese labor. Thanks are due to Claire Moore for taking care of the logistics of the conference; Richard Appelbaum for reading the manuscript and providing valuable suggestions to authors; Dayaneetha de Silva for editing the entire manuscript before its submission to ILR Press; Katy Meigs for copyediting for Cornell University Press; the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, UTS, for underwriting part of the publication costs; and finally to Frances Benson, editorial director of ILR Press, for her unfailing support in enhancing the quality of the manuscript and getting it published.

Anita Chan

In Chinese publications the catchphrase socialism with Chinese characteristics frequently is used to describe Chinas current economic system. The Chinese Communist Party provides a loose official definition: Socialism with Chinese characteristics combines the basic principles of scientific socialism with the factors of building socialism unique to China. To my mind the exceptionalism paradigm stultifies our search for a deeper understanding of China.

If there is one feature that contributes to the notion of Chinese labor exceptionalism it is its gargantuan size. As industrialization steamed ahead in China, and a workforce of several hundreds of millions emerged from the countryside and entered the labor market, the enormity of the impact on international labor could not seem anything but exceptional. Chinas exceptional size exerts a dominating effect on other poor nations. Newly industrializing countries in the global South, especially in Asia, felt obliged to compete by undercutting Chinas low wages and poor labor standards. Because of the size of its workforce, Chinas entry into the worlds labor market drove wages to the bottom among poor countries. Alongside this, the poor working conditions in Chinas vast export sector attracted unrelenting criticism from the developed world (in particular from Western trade unions) as if Chinese workers conditions are exceptionally abhorrent. In point of fact, many countries work conditions, such as in India and Pakistan as shown in Chapter 6, are worse than Chinas.

China has also been treated as exceptional in that it is among a handful of countries in the world that still declare themselves socialist and that do not allow free trade unionism. The international trade union movement in the 1990s and early 2000s, under the umbrella of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), was particularly critical of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) as the handmaiden of, and window dressing for, a Communist state. Despite a toned-down criticism, the pressing issue is still Chinas violation of the International Labor Organizations two core labor standards: freedom of association (ILO convention no. 87) and the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining (ILO convention no. 98). Admittedly, China is not exceptional in not ratifying or practicing these two conventions, and many countries often violate these principles in practice. In this sense, China is no exception.

Internationally isolated, the ACFTU for its own bureaucratic reasons was eager to join the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The annual debate among the members of the international organization on how to deal with the ACFTU has been intense. It was not until 2007 that the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, renamed the International Trade Union