The Emerging Industrial Relations of China William Brown and Chang Kai (eds) Cambridge University Press, 2018, 250 pp., £22.99

• Author: Xuebing Cao
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12250
• Date: 01 March 2019

Book Review

The Emerging Industrial Relations of China

William Brown and Chang Kai (eds)

Cambridge University Press, 2018, 250 pp., £22.99

Scholarly discussions of contemporary Chinese industrial relations (IR) have become

relatively less substantive. This is in line with what has been happening recently in

China’s workplaces—fewer high-profile work stoppages and the gradual improve-

ment of migrant workers’terms and conditions in urban factories. With authorities

tightening the control of autonomous worker resistance and non-government labour

organisations, there is less excitement about IR in the world’s largest emerging

economy. Yet serious studies, such as The Emerging Industrial Relations of China,

are a constant reminder that, first, investigations of China are still at an early stage

and, second, more researchers are emerging to survey the country’s changing

economy and its impact on work and employment.

This edited collection is a credible attempt to bring together the major IR issues

in China: efforts at conceptualisation and practical implications, interactions of the

actors in IR and comparative understanding of these matters. William Brown and

Chang Kai are leading authorities in IR research in the UK and China, respec-

tively, and their collaboration takes the exploration of China’s IR stimulatingly for-

ward. As expected, the book embodies a variety of explanations and discussions

nurturing an insightful understanding of the trajectory of IR policies and practices

in China.

The heart of the book is analysing the emergence of collective IR in China. A

pluralist approach fosters a sensible and pragmatic explanation of the uniqueness of

Chinese IR that has a progressive, collective orientation. This is the central element

of Brown’s opening analysis that identifies the key features of China’s IR system.

While his starting points, in Chapter 1, are primarily based on traditional and

contemporary Western literature, the emphasis is quite focused on the regulation

and resolution of workplace conflict, a crucial aspect of any IR system. For Brown,

different countries have developed various forms of collective bargaining and collec-

tive consultation, which have undergone ‘repeated change’. As Chapter 2 summa-

rises, there is a transition of Chinese IR from an individual to a collective model,

adjusted by market-directed reforms. Recognising the tension between unions and

workers, here, the discussion links the collectivisation tendency with recent labour

unrest and policy refinement, as well as the prospect of developing workplace

procedures.

Chang Kai and Chang Cheng discuss, separately, the historical, contemporary and

diverse development of Chinese trade unionism, with an overview of the co-existence

of top-down and bottom-up models of union organising. Responding to multiple ten-

sions from workers’rising demands, a vibrant market economy and government pres-

sure, Chinese unions need to make strategic moves that can improve their relations

with members and other IR actors. Yet achieving ‘harmonious labour relations’

Industrial Relations Journal 50:2, 214–215

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2019 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd