An intermediary: The Chinese perception of trade unions since the 1980s

Abstract

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese, departing from the Maoist perception of trade unions as a state bureaucratic agency without even minimum autonomy, have redefined trade unions as an intermediary with double roles: to link workers and the state bureaucracy by playing the role of a transmission belt and to link workers and the management or employers by acting as a mediator. In both cases, trade unions were recognized as workers’ legitimate representatives with high degree of organizational autonomy. Such a perception suggests that the Chinese acknowledged the limits of state power in the face of an increasingly complex society and the necessity to allow intermediary organizations such as trade unions to share the state's powers in some new social and economic areas. Therefore, it may mean an expansion of societal power vis‐a‐vis state power.

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