Abstract
The interplay between transnational business dynamics and Chinese labor politics has given rise to lively debate and a stimulating literature in the past decade. It echoes the broader “hot button” issue of international and foreign influence on Chinese domestic politics that has punctuated China’s gradual integration into the world economy since the inception of the 1978 Chinese Open Door policy. Somewhat tainted by nationalism, the debate among economists and policy analysts became more animated after China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 and later, when China was called on to comply with international standards and rules.
The empirical part of this article, presented in Sect. 14.4, is based on a research project the author joined in 2011, led by Dr. Chris King-Chi Chan at City University of Hong Kong and with Elaine Sio-ieng Hui. The outcomes of the interviews have been firstly analysed in a report submitted to the project funder (Hui and Chan 2012). The author thanks both researchers for sharing with her the outcomes of the interviews made by them with Asian organizations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
A total of two million workers were needed in the Pearl River Delta in early 2010, and some factories were forced to halt production due to a labor shortage (Hui and Chan 2012).
- 2.
According to official targets for 2012, R&D expenses will account for 2.5 % of regional GDP, the number of researchers will reach 280,000, some 100 state laboratories for engineering innovation and research and development will established and 3–5 industrial clusters powered by high-tech industries will enter into operation. Social targets such as pension and health-care systems are also considered.
- 3.
For the period 1980–2006, average FDI/GDP share was only 0.43 % for India, and 1.07 % for the United States (Sheng 2009).
- 4.
Source: Guangdong Statistical Yearbook 2011, p. 498.
- 5.
The selectiveness of FDI has been supported by a gradual reduction in tax-related preferential policies. For example, foreign invested export- and tech-oriented companies’ income taxes increased from 15 % to 25 % under the 2008 Enterprise Income Tax Law.
- 6.
As defined by Nolke (2011), IPE “may be understood as the study of the interplay of policies/politics/polities and economic patterns in a cross-border perspective” (p. 2).
- 7.
As noted by Nolke (2011), this approach can correct two of the major shortcomings of Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) approach : its focus on the national dimensions of the globalization and treatment of national economic systems “as closed containers and does not reflect their embeddedness within transnational economic regulations or within the institutions of global value chains” (p. 2); its exclusion of the role of labor forces in influencing institutional changes, considered as driven exclusively by business interests.
- 8.
Explicitly for Wilson, and implicitly for Gallagher’s contribution, the “path dependency” approach is mobilized as offering an endogenous explanation of institutional changes, shedding light on the resistance of domestic institutions to external influences, the inheritance of economic models and routes experimented.
- 9.
It echoes the more general Guthrie’s (1999) view that the slogan “getting on track with international practices (jiegui guoji)” added force and legitimacy to socially difficult reforms.
- 10.
Given to the competition pressure a key role for introducing institutional changes, Gallagher’s thesis differs from Guthrie’s one (1999) who emphasizes on the organizational learning role of JV to diffuse international and foreign models into domestic firms.
- 11.
Since 1994, preferential local policies were extended to all provinces. As noted by the author “thousand of local governments set up development zones in a mad dash to court foreign investors, announced tax and land-use fee breaks, and offered foreign investors access to low-cost labor” (Gallagher 2005, p. 42).
- 12.
Interesting enough, as stressed by the president of the AmCham, the White paper was distributed to large segments of the society, whereas it was reserved for the government 10 years ago.
- 13.
The Dongguan City Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment is a local non-profit social group approved by State authorities and registered with the industry and commerce administration departments. Similar associations exist in other cities in Guangdong Province (Hui and Chan 2012).
- 14.
Our interlocutor is also vice-chair of the Guangdong China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), and a board member of the Shenzhen International Chamber of Commerce (Hui and Chan 2012).
- 15.
An example was provided by the interviewee: he tried to convince Chinese public officials to pursue the issue of Intellectual Property Rights by pointing out that most IPR cases in the courts are actually filed by a Chinese firm against another Chinese firm.
- 16.
Bilateral cooperation on social issues is not the monopoly of Sweden. French and German governments in particular have been cooperating with Chinese public authorities at national and local levels, in the topic of the redesign of pension systems in Beijing, Shanghai, while the EU has more recently been involved in helping China manage the transferability of pension rights between provinces.
- 17.
It is estimated that 10 % of the 60,000–70,000 Hong Kong-run factories in the Pearl River Delta have closed their plants in 2008 due to increased labor costs.
- 18.
The interview conducted with one representative from the Bauhinia Foundation (an influential “free trade” HK think-tank) revealed the attempt of HK for exporting its commercial law inherited from the commonwealth law (arbitration process, commercial dispute, etc.) in a Mainland China more attracted by the “Continental Law”.
- 19.
Informants noted that Taiwanese investment altogether contributes over 51 % of GDP in Dongguan and 15 % of GDP in Guangzhou.
- 20.
Interviewees were representatives of the Shanghai and Guangzhou office of the Taiwan World Trade Center, a Taiwanese government-supported agency focusing on economic affairs in China, and the Taiwan Merchant Association Dongguan.
- 21.
- 22.
See, China Labor Bulletin, “The development of collective bargaining in China – two case studies”, 26 January 2012, http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/101233.
References
Almond (2011) Multinationals strategies and labor regulations: Europe and Asian perspectives. Hong Kong Baptist University. Mimeo, Hong-Kong, 14–15 June
Almond P, Ferner A (eds) (2006) American multinationals in Europe. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Bohle D, Greskovits B (2009) Varieties of capitalism and capitalism “tout court”. Arch Eur Sociol 50(3):355–386
Chan A (2001) Workers under assault: the exploitation of labor in a globalizing economy. M. E. Sharpe, New York
Chan CK (2009) Strikes and changing workplace relations in a Chinese global factory. Ind Relations J 40(1):60–77
Chan CK (2012) Class or citizenship? Debating workplace conflict in China. J Contemp Asia 42(2):308–327
Collings D (2008) Multinational corporations and industrial relations research: a road less travelled. Int J Manage Rev 10(2):173–193
Contrepois S, Delteil V, Dieuaide P, Jefferys S (eds) (2011) Globalising employment relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London
Feng C (2003) Between the state and labor: the conflict of Chinese trade unions’ double identity in market reform. China Q 176:1006–1028
Gallagher ME (2005) Contagious capitalism China Quarterly, globalization and the politics of labor in China. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Gallagher ME, Dong B (2011) Legislating harmony: labor law reform in contemporary China. In: Kurubill S, Gallagher ME, Lee CK (eds) From iron rice-bowl to informalization: markets, state and workers in a changing China. Cornell University Press, Ithaca/London, pp 36–60
Global Labor Strategies (2007) Undue influence: corporations gain ground in battle over China’s new labor law—but human rights and labor advocates are pushing back, March. http://laborstrategies.blogs.com
Graz J-C, Nölke A (2008) Transnational private governance and its limits. Routledge, London
Guthrie D (1999) Dragon in a three-piece suit: the emergence of capitalism in China. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Guangdong Statistical Yearbook (2011) China Statistics Press
Hui E, Chan CK (2012) The role of foreign chambers of commerce and government agencies in shaping labour legislations in China: a case study on the Shenzhen collective consultation ordinance and the Guangdong regulations on democratic management of enterprises, FNV report. http://www.fnvmondiaal.nl/media/pdf/352260/1135148
Karindi L (2008) The making of China’s new labor contract law. China Analysis 66, November. www.chinapolitik.de
King L (2007) Central European capitalism in comparative perspective. In: Hancké R, Thatcher M, Rhodes M (eds) Beyond varieties of capitalism: conflict, contradictions, and complementarities in the European economy. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 307–327
Kristensen P, Zeitlin J (2005) Local players in global games. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Meardi G, Marginson P, Fichter M, Frybes M, Stanojevic M, Toth A (2009) Varieties of multinationals: adapting employment practices in Central Eastern Europe. Ind Relations 48(3):489–511
Morgan G (2009) Globalization, multinationals and institutional diversity. Econ Soc 38(4):580–605
Nölke A (2011) Transnational economic order and national economic institutions – comparative capitalism meets international political economy. Max Plank working paper 11/3
Nölke A, Vliegenthart A (2009) Enlarging the varieties of capitalism: the emergence of dependent market economies in East Central Europe? World Polit 61(4):670–702
Sheng Y (2009) How globalized are the Chinese provinces?. EAI Background Brief no 423. http://www.eai.nus.edu.sg/BB423.pdf
Taylor B, Li q (2007) Is the ACFTU a union and does it matter? J Ind Relations 49:701–715
Tilly C (1995) Globalization threatens labor’s rights. Int Lab Work Class Hist (47):1–23
Whitley R (2005) How national are business systems? The role of states and complementary institutions in standardizing systems of coordination and control at the national level. In: Morgan G, Whitley R, Moen E (eds) Changing capitalisms? Internationalisation, institutional change and systems of economic organization. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 190–231
Wilson S (2009) Remade in China: Foreign investors and institutional change in China. Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 290
Zhang H (1997) Will foreign capital swallow up China: where should national industry go? (Waizi Nengfou unbing Zhongguo: Minzuqiye ying xiang hechuqu). Qiye Guanli Chuban She, Beijing
Zhu Z (2007) Legislation to focus on social issues. China Daily (12 March 2007), online: China Daily. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-03/12/content_824812.htm
Zhu Y, Warner M (2004) Changing patterns of human resource management in contemporary China: WTO accession and enterprise responses. Ind Relations J 35(4):311–328
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Delteil, V. (2014). Domestic Labor Regulation and Foreign Business Influence: The Case of the Guangdong “Transnational Capitalism”. In: Richet, X., Delteil, V., Dieuaide, P. (eds) Strategies of Multinational Corporations and Social Regulations. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41369-8_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41369-8_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41368-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41369-8
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)