Introduction

This introductory chapter outlines the key ideas, goals, and the theoretical foundation of this study. It sets the scene to show why and how uncertainty is so pervasive in Chinese politics that it both sets and upsets the parameters of the work of Chinese labor NGOs. Therefore, this chapter provides an overview of why uncertainty is important for situating and understanding the existence and development of labor NGOs in China. More specifically, it discusses conceptually the ideas of uncertainty, intimacy and complicity, and how they work together as an effective governing mechanism for the Chinese state to induce and secure compliance by focusing on the intimate and complicit knowledge, skills, and practices required for labor NGOs to operate in China. They are intimate because they are not immediately available to the outsider; they are complicit because they are a necessary component of the Chinese Communist regime. The introduction—like the rest of the book—draws out individual stories from labor NGOs and activists to give a vivid sense of uncertainty that permeates in the labor community in South China.