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Background China's economy is transforming itself within the last thirty years in an unknown speed, however, the social tissue and labour relations suffer a lot (ICFTU 2005, Philipp 1993). Not only some 250 million migrant workers are severely affected, but most other workers as well. Also the rest of the world is looking anxiously to China, the yellow danger as it has been named by the German Emperor William II one hundred years ago. Apparently China is the winner of globalisation (Fichter & Sydow 2002, Garibaldo, Morvannou & Tholen 2008, Haak & Hilpert 2003, Szell 2000, Szell, Bosling & Hartkemeyer 2005). The year 1978 has been a watershed for the future of China by Deng Xia Ping's four economic reforms, leading to the so-called socialist market economy. This transformation process resembles more to what Karl Marx described as primitive accumulation (PROKLA 2000, Florsheimer 2009). Even Chinese officials describe the situation as similar to England in the 1870s, and insist, therefore, that China today is still largely a developing country. The effects on labour relations have been described well recently (Branine 1997, Chan 2008, Leung 1997, Taylor, Chang & Li 2003, Warner 2000, Zhu 1995). This article will concentrate on the most recent changes within the last couple of years, namely before and after the Great Economic Crisis of September 2008. Already during the years before, economically China was catching up quickly with the increasing economic power. Its impact on international relations grew as well (Ma et al. 2005). In 2009 China overtook Germany as the country with the third biggest GDP, and became also the number one in export surplus. It seems only a question of time, when it will leave behind Japan as well as the U.S. Its political impact cannot only be felt as the leading member of the BRIC- i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China. The Pittsburgh Summit in 2009 changed again the world co-ordinates, as de facto the G 20 replaced the G7/8. And during the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009, when a follow-up agreement after the Kyoto Protocol to save the world climate should have been agreed on, at the end there were only China and the U.S., which negotiated between them directly the outcome, ending as we know with a no-decision. Neither the UN nor the European Union played a role any more in this setting. A large part of the Chinese production, with its trade surplus, is a product of a de-localised production, exported to the so called industrialised countries. Even after the recent worldwide crisis, its economic growth rates continue more than 8 % p.a. although certainly partly due to the huge government financial packages. The enormous trade surplus, which leads eventually to the largest currency reserves in the world, is closely linked to the biggest Foreign Direct Investments worldwide (Zou 2009). Actually, a large part of the Chinese production, with its trade surplus, is a product of a de-localised production, exported to the so called industrialised countries. So far China, as quite some other developing countries, is the factory of the world. The former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt used to say that the future of Germany lies in the export of blue prints and not the production of goods itself although Germany remains still largely an industrial country. The most well known example of outsourcing and de-localisation is WalMart, the biggest single trading company in the world (Geffken 2006). The US or EU deficits have to be regarded with caution. With de-localisation the pollution has been exported too. China has some of the most polluted cities and regions in the world, and is number two in overall pollution after the USA, causing apparently serious impacts on the health and well-being of the population. Although the economic reforms broke the monopoly of the State Owned Enterprises (SOE), they still have a large influence, and in many sectors they still dominate. …
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