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.

As the Chinese economy recovers, an influential magazine calls on the government and trade unions to take concerted measures to alleviate the growing conflict between workers and management. Photo. Onekel

During the last decade China has been hit by a wave of wildcat workers strikes, the fundamental cause of which, according to Han Dongfang, is the lack of Chinese workers to engage in collective bargaining with their employers.

CLB director Han Dongfang argues that moves by the authorities in Shanxi to close and merge small privately-run mines with larger state-run mines will only improve coal mine safety if miners are allowed to play a key role in safety management. Photograph by andi808.

Around one hundred Chinese construction workers staged a roadside protest on the Caribbean island of Trinidad last week demanding they be allowed to return to China after being forced to live and work in appalling conditions, with no pay for the last two months.

China Labour Bulletin appears in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.

30 July 2009. Beijing.
From The Economist Print Edition

What lies behind the gruesome death of a manager at Tonghua Iron and Steel?

This year, as every year, China Labour Bulletin mourns all those who died in the brutal government crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement on this day 20 years ago, and our hearts go out to the bereaved families, all of whom have paid a bitter price for their loved-ones’ fateful efforts to bring China peacefully out of autocracy.

China Labour Bulletin appears in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.

Sunday 24 May 2009

By: Claire Harvey

On a trip to China, Claire Harvey saw first-hand why it's so hard for Aussie clothing manufacturers to compete with cheap Chinese labour.

It is lunchtime at the Wen Ling garment factory and the clatter of sewing-machines gives way to laughing chatter, as young Chinese workers jostle and flirt their way to the tea-room.

What does the ACFTU consider its role to be: Is it a defender of workers’ rights or a servant of the Chinese Communist Party and government? A new report from CLB explores the complex identity of China’s official trade union. Photo by SJ photography