Canada's Role in Advancing the Chongqing Model: Labour Relations and Occupational Health & Safety as Instruments of Political Sociology

Introduction The ‘Chongqing Model’ refers to a series of social and economic reforms undertaken mostly between 2007 and 2012 in China’s Chongqing Municipality, under the leadership of Bo Xilai [Rithmire]. The reforms,... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction

The ‘Chongqing Model’ refers to a series of social and economic reforms undertaken mostly between 2007 and 2012 in China’s Chongqing Municipality, under the leadership of Bo Xilai [Rithmire]. The reforms, generally seen as a blending of neo-statist economics (favouring centralized government roles in production and enterprise) and socioeconomic advancement (improving benefits and rights for workers and increasing domestic consumption) drew significant attention from Beijing; especially in light of Chongqing’s economic performance relative to other Chinese jurisdictions during the post-2008 global economic slowdown [Rithmire]. Indeed, until Bo’s fall from political life, the Model was often discussed as a strategy for Chinese economic and social development more generally [Lam].

The Chongqing Model has been discussed in recent political science and economics literature, but relatively little attention has been given to the role of international policy actors in its development. This paper fills the gap by showing how international consultation provided substance to the policy objectives of the Model. The paper will focus on two contributions from Canada: first, the Chongqing initiative to learn more about and potentially adapt certain components of Canada’s labour relations system, especially free collective bargaining and strike ordinances, in cooperation with Canadian labour leaders [COPE]; and second, the Canadian government-funded Migrant Labour Occupational Health and Safety project, which was established to leverage Canada’s workplace health and safety community to advance better workplace policies, practices and conditions, principally in Chongqing factories [mlohs.com].

Discussion

The Chongqing Model is often discussed as domestic Chinese policy, but components of the Model relating to reforms (and attempted reforms) in labour and working conditions should be treated as a study in international policy consultation. The international perspective should not be overlooked as it provides an uncommon opportunity to assess the transferability of policy between two very different political sociologies. The main question that this paper will address: did the Chongqing Municipality hope to change the nature of workplace relations to better resemble Canadian employer-worker relations; or did it simply hope to achieve better outcomes (fewer unauthorized strikes, fewer workplace injuries) by incorporating best practices, without fundamentally changing workplace relations?

Method

The primary research material for this paper will be Canadian government sources, including: submissions to parliamentary committees and program evaluations related to the Migrant Labour Occupational Health and Safety project. Semi-structured interviews will be held with Canadian labour leaders about their consultations in China. The purpose of this research is to determine whether or not the Canadian participants expected to play a role in transforming workplace relations in Chongqing, or if their role was limited to simply sharing best practices. Findings will be compared to recent studies on Chinese labour and workplace safety practices to determine the extent to which reforms were implemented.

Eligibility

The author is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong.