Publication

This paper traces the historical evolution of core changes in Chinese labor reform and worker entitlements from the introduction of labor contracts to the promulgation of a national labor law, the demolition of work-unit socialism and its replacement with a national social security system. The paper also examines the workers’ livelihood struggles in response to these epochal transformations. In conclusion the author argues that a fundamental restructuring of the labor force caused massive unemployment in the state industrial sector and momentous migration of peasants into global factories.