Historically, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is an offspring of the German labour movement. In the spirit of this tradition, »industrial relations« is a major concern in our international engagement. The FES offices in China provide a platform for Chinese actors involved in industrial relations and their German or international counterparts to exchange ideas and solutions for adjusting labour markets to the needs of development. The overall goal is to contribute to the betterment of workers’ living and working conditions.

The term »industrial relations« (frequently also »labour relations«) describes the relations of exchange between capital and labour. This includes all forms of cooperation and conflict relations which exist between capital and labour or their representatives in the shaping of employment relations at all four levels: company, sectoral, national and, more recently, transnational. These relations can be formed on a unilateral, bilateral or trilateral basis, depending on whether (a) one actor has enough power to engage in one-sided decision-making, (b) two actors (capital and labour) seek agreement through compromise or (c) the state enters the scene as a third party. At the centre of industrial relations, therefore, lies the concrete organisation of the employment relations of dependent employees via collective regulations.

In a socialist market economy, such as China, in which elements of a planned economy and a market economy co-exist alongside a strong state sector, the development of industrial relations does not follow the path of a full market economy. Trade unions – as one of the main actors – are in transition, fulfilling partly the traditional work of socialist trade unions while at the same time being called upon to become wage negotiators. Collective wage bargaining is still in its early stages in China and one of the main challenges for the coming years.