[lbo-talk] China Workers' Rising Wealth Strengthens Xi's G-20 Hand - Bloomberg

[Marv Gandall]

Though strikes and other forms of labour unrest are far more prevalent in China than in the West, this is primarily an expression of rapid economic growth, labour shortages, and rising expectations which have enhanced the bargaining power and wage gains of the Chinese working class. These conditions underlie what the article concedes to be broad working class support for the CCP leadership, despite the state's repression of independent trade unions and political activity.

The same robust economic conditions which once fuelled the growth and combativity of the working class in the developed capitalist countries are no longer present, and explains the decline in union density and strike activity over the past four decades more than any other factor.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-26/china-workers-rising-wealth-strengthens-xi-s-g-20-hand