Trade Union Reform in One-party States: China and Vietnam Compared

Abstract

This essay compares the prospects for union reform in Vietnam and China. In Vietnam, heated debates about how to reform the trade union and the industrial relations system have been ongoing for more than a year, ever since the government signed the now defunct Transnational Pacific Partnership Agreement. That the debate continues among the top leadership and within government bureaucracies indicates that there is no lack of willingness to reform. In China, on the contrary, the Chinese Party-state and the official unions are taking the route of suppression of labour activism, indicating grim prospects for union reform.