ABSTRACT
An appreciation of labour relations is a prerequisite for understanding Chinese development and its likely future trajectory. At the same time, such appreciation alone is not sufficient, neither for understanding the larger picture of the Chinese economy nor for accounting for changes in the labour relations system itself. Economic activity in China, and indeed anywhere in the world, is embedded in, and shaped by, a complex web of societal factors that in their entirety form what is known as a ‘business system’ (see Redding 2005; Whitley 1999). Labour relations interact with many of these societal factors, in the process both receiving and exerting transformational influences.
