Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T22:58:48.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Different Demands, Varying Responses: Local Government Responses to Workers’ Collective Actions in South China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2019

Yujeong Yang Open the ORCID record for Yujeong Yang [Opens in a new window]  and
Wei Chen
Yujeong Yang
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, State University of New York, Cortland. Email: [email protected].
Wei Chen*
Affiliation:
School of Government, Nanjing University.
*
Email: [email protected] (corresponding author).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

While Chinese local governments remain extremely wary of workers’ collective actions, they do not always suppress them; sometimes, they tolerate such actions and even seek to placate workers. What accounts for these different government responses to workers’ collective actions? Based on a sample of over 1,491 collective action cases that took place in Guangdong between 2011 and 2016, we find that the types of demands raised by workers during collective actions affect how local governments respond. Local governments are likely to forcefully intervene in collective actions in which workers make defensive claims concerning issues of payment. In contrast, local governments are likely to use non-forceful approaches in response to actions in which workers make defensive claims regarding social security.

摘要

摘要

虽然中国地方政府仍保持对工人集体行动的高度警觉，但他们并非总是打压工人的行动。地方政府有时反而会默许工人行动，甚至采取怀柔策略安抚工人。究竟有哪些原因可以解释政府回应工人集体行动的不同方式？基于一份2011年至2016年发生在广东省1,491起工人集体行动案件的样本，我们发现工人集体行动中所提出的诉求类型会影响地方政府作出何种反应。当工人们提出涉及薪酬类的防御性诉求时，地方政府更可能会强力干预工人集体行动。相反，地方政府更可能采取非强制性策略来回应工人行动中涉及社会保险类的防御性诉求。

Keywords

workers’ collective actionssuppressionmediationworker demandsstrikesouth China工人集体行动压制调解工人诉求罢工南中国
Type
Research Report
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 243 , September 2020 , pp. 839 - 854
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Becker, Jeffrey. 2012. “The knowledge to act: Chinese migrant labor protests in comparative perspective.” Comparative Political Studies 45(11), 1379–1404.Google Scholar
Blecher, Marc J. 2002. “Hegemony and workers’ politics in China.” The China Quarterly 170, 283–303.10.1017/S0009443902000190CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butollo, Florian, and ten Brink, Tobias. 2012. “Challenging the atomization of discontent.” Critical Asian Studies 44(3), 419–440.10.1080/14672715.2012.711978CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2008. “Local governments and the suppression of popular resistance in China.” The China Quarterly 193, 24–42.10.1017/S0305741008000027CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cai, Yongshun. 2010. Collective Resistance in China: Why Popular Protests Succeed or Fail. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chan, Chris King-Chi, and Hui, Elaine Sio-Ieng. 2014. “The development of collective bargaining in China: from ‘collective bargaining by riot’ to ‘party state-led wage bargaining’.” The China Quarterly 217, 221–242.10.1017/S0305741013001409CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, Chris King-Chi, and Hui, Elaine Sio-Ieng. 2016. “Bringing class struggles back: a marxian analysis of the state and class relations in China.” Globalization 14(2), 232–244.10.1080/14747731.2016.1207935CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Feng, and Kang, Yi. 2016. “Disorganized popular contention and local institutional building in China: a case study in Guangdong.” Journal of Contemporary China 25(100), 596–612.10.1080/10670564.2015.1132959CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Feng, and Tang, Mengxiao. 2013. “Labor conflicts in China: typologies and their implications.” Asian Survey 53(3), 559–583.10.1525/as.2013.53.3.559CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Patricia, and Gallagher, Mary. 2018. “Mobilization without movement: how the Chinese state ‘fixed’ labor insurgency.” ILR Review 71(5), 1–24.10.1177/0019793918759066CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2017. “Counting contention.” Made in China 2(4), 16–21.Google Scholar
Elfstrom, Manfred. 2019. “Two steps forward, one step back: Chinese state reactions to labour unrest.” The China Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741019000067.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elfstrom, Manfred, and Kuruvilla, Sarosh. 2014. “The changing nature of labor unrest in China.” Industrial & Labor Relations Review 67(2), 453–480.10.1177/001979391406700207CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franzosi, Roberto. 1989. “One hundred years of strike statistics: methodological and theoretical issues in quantitative strike research.” ILR Review 42(3), 348–362.10.1177/001979398904200302CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu, Diana, and Distelhorst, Greg. 2017. “Grassroots participation and repression under Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping.” The China Journal 79(1), 100–122.10.1086/694299CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, Mary E. 2005. Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Mary E. 2006. “Mobilizing the law in China: ‘informed disenchantment’ and the development of legal consciousness.” Law & Society Review 40(4), 783–816.10.1111/j.1540-5893.2006.00281.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, Mary E. 2017. Authoritarian Legality in China: Law, Workers, and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781316018194CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, Mary E., Giles, John, Park, Albert and Wang, Meiyan. 2014. “China's 2008 Labor Contract Law: implementation and implications for China's workers.” Human Relations 68(2) 197–235.Google Scholar
Hernandez, Javier. 2016. “Labor protests multiply in China as economy slows, worrying leaders.” The New York Times, 14 March.Google Scholar
Hu, Jieren, Tu, Yue and Wu, Tong. 2017. “Selective intervention in dispute resolution: local government and community governance in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 27(111), 1–17.Google Scholar
Hui, Elaine Sio-ieng. 2018. Hegemonic Transformation: The State, Laws, and Labour Relations in Post-socialist China. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/978-1-137-50429-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hui, Elaine Sio-ieng, and Chan, Chris King-chi. 2011. “The ‘harmonious society’ as a hegemonic project: labour conflicts and changing labour policies in China.” Labour, Capital and Society 44(2), 154–183.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer and Roberts, Margaret E.. 2013. “How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression.” American Political Science Review 107(2), 326–343.10.1017/S0003055413000014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan. 2007. Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520940642CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Yao. 2017. “A zero-sum game: repression and protest in China.” Government and Opposition 54(2), 1–27.Google Scholar
Lorentzen, Peter. 2013. “Regularizing rioting: permitting public protest in an authoritarian regime.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 8(2), 127–158.10.1561/100.00012051CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pun, Ngai. 2016. “Radicalization and collective action of the new Chinese working class.” In Ngai, Pun (ed.), Migrant Labor in China: Post-socialist Transformations. Cambridge: Polity Press, 134–173.Google Scholar
Remington, Thomas F., and Cui, Xiao Wen. 2016. “The impact of the 2008 Labor Contract Law on labor disputes in China.” Journal of East Asian Studies 15(02), 271–299.Google Scholar
Su, Yang, and He, Xin. 2010. “Street as courtroom: state accommodation of labor protest in South China.” Law & Society Review 44(1), 157–184.10.1111/j.1540-5893.2010.00399.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tong, Yanqi, and Lei, Shaohua. 2013. Social Protest in Contemporary China, 2003–2010: Transitional Pains and Regime Legitimacy. Abingdon: Routledge.10.4324/9780203795453CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Teresa. 2018. Popular Protest in China. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Zhao, Yuezhi. 2003. “Falun gong, identity, and the struggle over meaning inside and outside China.” In Couldry, Nick and Curran, James (eds.), Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 209–223.Google Scholar
Zhuang, Wenjia, and Chen, Feng. 2015. “‘Mediate first’: the revival of mediation in labour dispute resolution in China.” The China Quarterly 222, 380–402.10.1017/S0305741015000739CrossRefGoogle Scholar