Realities and Possibilities for Chinese Trade Unionism

In the past few years China has become the focus of international attention as it emerges as an important economic power. Injecting tens of millions of workers into the world labour market in the past two decades, the China labour issue and, related to it, the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), China's only official trade union federation, have aroused emotive and heated debates within the international trade union circle. China is feared as a gigantic competitor snatching jobs from developed and developing countries alike. Trade unions of the developed world criticise the ACFTU as an arm of the Chinese state and refuse to recognise it as a trade union. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) does not accept the ACFTU as a member