ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1990s, the East Asian economy as a whole has been moving from a unipolar system dominated by Japan to a multipolar system, in which China’s increasing share of the world export market gives that country a dominant role (Fujita 2007: 84). China’s growing importance in global trade will unquestionably increase its infl uence in shaping the architecture of economic and social integration in the region. The question that remains to be addressed is whether China can act as a springboard for the diffusion of innovative norms that favour employee voice, social protection and the fair distribution of wealth or whether it will develop practices that increase management control, reduce worker protection and exacerbate inequalities.
