ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a number of regulatory responses to the failure of many enterprises to observe labour standards. The author begins by outlining the initial stage of labour legislation which quickly proved to be based on obsolescent assumptions about Chinas labour market. The author briefly notes how CSR initiatives emerged, in part to compensate for regulatory failures at the state level that were alleged to lead to unfair trade. The chapter also focuses on a number of recent domestic developments in China's labour law and labour institutions, both formal and informal. It contextualizes how Chinas Labour Law became obsolete and ineffective shortly after it was enacted. In order to understand how the Labour Law could be outdated so soon after it was enacted, it is necessary to bear in mind that China has transitioned from a command economy to what is largely a market system in a relatively short period of time.
