ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the development of management, industrial conflicts and trade unionism in China since the reform, within a changing political and economic context. The authors suggest that the Chinese government’s effort to integrate the country into the global economy since 1978 and its strategies to rebalance the economy since the global recession in 2008 have defined the development of employment relations (ER) in the country. Apart from structural and institutional factors, workers’ agency is another driving force for the historical change. As a result, although the Chinese tradition and socialist legacy have continued to take effect in the workplace, changes have taken place in different areas, such as the promotion of wage collective bargaining and trade union direct election in some regions and enterprises. The changing political economy has given rise to the decentralisation and hybridisation of ER in China.
