Sitting at a sidewalk coffee shop a block from the White House, Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union, is reflecting on a series of visits he's made since 2002 to China, where he has discussed organizing and collective bargaining with leaders of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). China's economic transformation is a profound challenge to the United States, and to American workers in particular, Stern says. "We have to recognize that China is the first real economic competitor that has ever threatened America's standing as the global economic superpower."

If passed into law, the regulations could trigger a major overhaul of the collective consultation system that has prevailed in China over the last two decades. Photo by Travel Geographer.

The name gives no hint of potential changes for workers’ rights. Yet the proposed Regulations on the Democratic Management of Enterprises, under debate in the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, offers Chinese labor a new bargaining tool: an officially sanctioned right to strike.

Officials in Guangdong province – for years the country's manufacturing heartland – are debating proposals which activists say could be a landmark, allowing workers to democratically elect representatives to carry out collective bargaining.

The week-long strike at Honda supplier Atsumitec ended Thursday after workers and management agreed to a 45 percent increase in the basic wage from 980 yuan a month to 1,420 yuan. And the Guangdong provincial government is currently drafting Regulations on the Democratic Management of Enterprises (广东省企业民主管理条例), which if implemented would establish a legally binding wage negotiation system.

Young migrant workers in Shenzhen, just like their parents, have to work long hours in hazardous conditions for low pay. The key difference between the generations, a new survey shows, is that the expectations of younger workers are much higher than their parents, seeking to establish a life for themselves in the city rather than return to the countryside.

Two new strikes have halted production at Japanese-owned automotive components and assembly plants in Guangzhou. Workers at NHK-UNI Spring (Guangzhou) went on strike Tuesday, after workers at Denso (Guangzhou Nansha), which supplies fuel injection equipment to Honda and Toyota, walked off the job on Monday demanding higher pay and better benefits.

Listen to the following statements about the strike at Honda's transmission plant in Guangdong province, one that has brought the Japanese company's car production throughout China to a juddering halt. The first goes like this: "The strike reflects the low wages the bosses are paying the workers . . . The system does not provide a legal base for collective bargaining." The second, like this: "In the three decades of opening-up, ordinary workers are among those who have received the smallest share of economic prosperity. The temporary stoppage of production lines in the four Honda factories . . . highlights the necessity of organised labour protection in Chinese factories."

Western media coverage of China tends to be dominated by two competing narratives. The first is all about economics. China, it contends, is an epochal success story. The economy is booming and national wealth is on the rise. The Chinese themselves are overwhelmingly satisfied with their lot. There's nowhere to go but up. The second focuses on politics. China is in the grip of communist party dictatorship. People have no democratic rights. Everywhere you turn, there is social turmoil -- seething popular anger over corruption, environmental degradation, illegal land grabs, and summary arrests. Something's got to give. To be sure, both of these interpretations contain grains of truth. But it turns out that there's another way of comprehending the reality of modern-day China -- one that captures the contradictions of the place and allows them to co-exist.

China’s official media has responded to Friday’s violent demonstration at a Taiwan-funded enterprise in Suzhou with calls for local governments and trade unions to better protect workers’ rights, and establish effective channels for dialogue between labour and management.