Our 10 most recent articles.
Transgender workers still struggle for equal employment rights in China
To mark Pride Month, we examine the continuing discrimination faced by transgender employees in China despite a landmark legal ruling last year.
29 June 2021
China urges its exhausted workers not to “lie down”
The number of active worker protests in China is declining, and the space for resistance on social media is shrinking, but workers are still finding new ways to express their discontent.
24 June 2021
Government report documents migrant worker struggles in 2020
China’s rural migrant worker population fell by 5.2 million last year as the Covid-19 pandemic and attendant economic slowdown led to job losses and wage stagnation.
05 May 2021
Migrant workers and their children
There are an estimated 286 million rural migrant workers in China, comprising more than one-third of the entire working population. They have been the engine of China’s spectacular economic growth over the last three decades but remain marginalized, and their children have limited access to education and healthcare.
04 May 2021
Minimum wage increases stall under the impact of Covid-19 pandemic
For the first time in over a decade, none of China’s provinces and regions announced a minimum wage increase this year, and several regions implemented an official minimum wage freeze.
16 December 2020
Workers in the Global South face unprecedented challenges in 2020
CLB investigates how the Covid-19 pandemic and economic contraction has affected the world’s two largest workforces in China and India.
19 November 2020
Alibaba’s global ambitions present a dilemma for European labour
Chinese tech giant Alibaba is establishing an e-commerce hub at Liège Airport. What does this mean for workers and trade unions in Europe?
10 November 2020
Employment and Wages
Job creation and higher living standards have long been key objectives for the Chinese government. However, millions of workers in traditional industries are being laid off and many of the new jobs being created are insecure and poorly paid.
15 September 2020
China’s economic recovery shows stark regional differences
The provinces most severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as most major cities in China, all saw negative economic growth in the first half of the year, according to official data on the gross domestic product (GDP) of individual provinces released last week.
05 August 2020
After the pandemic, China’s workers take another hit from widespread flooding
Tens of millions of people have been affected by this year’s devastating floods across central China, mostly in the relatively poorer provinces of Jiangxi and Anhui, as well as around Wuhan, the locus of the Covid-19 outbreak earlier in the year.
23 July 2020