Setting Out the Issues

Why study Chinese trade unions and their role vis-a-vis management? There are several possible answers to this question. First, the Chinese economy is not only currently the fastest growing in the world but may also soon to gain economic ‘superpower’ status (Lardy, 1994).1 Second, China has the world’s largest industrial and aggregate labour force (Nolan, 1995). Third, it also has the largest trade union organization found in a single country (Warner, 1995). Fourth, since the demise of the former Soviet Union, it remains the last major example of a Leninist ‘transmission-belt’ model of trade unionism (Chan, 1995). There are no doubt many other reasons that could be adduced to study this phenomenon: we shall return to these later.