ith management than to fight for its members interests. Since, for the vast majority, workers do not choose union leadership, their interest can be easily ignored. Contributing to this, local governments are in competition for foreign investment domestically as well as with other rising regional economies such as Vietnam, and may prefer to keep trade unions tame (Chan, 2000). Consequently interaction between union officials and members is nearly non-existent and it may be argued that Chinese unions are likely to operate more on behalf of government and management (Metcalf and Li, 2005). There have been small numbers of enterprise level elections of union officials potentially contributing to provide workers with improved representation, but in how far this mechanism is suitable and supported by the government is yet to be determined (Chan, 2005). As with many policies in China, much depends on the sentiment of local officials. Since local and provincial governments are expected to deliver high growth of output and exports while often facing excess labor supply, official sentiment can easily tilt towards employers (Rawski, 2003). The dependence on local governments preferences can reduce unionization efforts, and, if they are established, their effectiveness and bargaining power.important role for trade unions has been to keep the government in touch with its workers, having them functioning as a transmission belt (Dong, 2004). The top-down function is the mobilization of labor for means of production and serving the government s interest. The bottom-up transmission then is the protection of workers rights and interest. However, workers have little room to communicate their interests as much bottom-up transmission is suppressed (Chan, 2000). In this sense, its core activities have little to do with Western understanding of trade unions. This historically limited role may have, among others, two reasons. First, the concept of the iron rice bowl, the wage grid system as well as the a non-market economy with non-profit oriented enterprises administrated by the government meant that most traditional trade union activities were occupied by the government, leaving trade unions with a limited role associated to providing for welfare issues. Second, all people, workers and management, were (supposedly) pursuing a common goal which due to the ideology made any further union activity futile. Another factor which contributes to the stagnant organizational structures and tight government association are political fears owing to the association of parts of the ACFTU and especially autonomous trade unions with events during the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident (Sek and Warner, 1998). As a result Chinese trade unions remain under the same strict government control...
