Abstract
In addition to adopting the approach emphasizing relations between state andsociety, this paper further examines Chinese labor laws from a “global supply chain”perspective, particularly highlighting the roles of international buyers and Taiwaninvestors interacting with the labor laws. Socialist China, as one of the East-Asiandevelopment states, is continuously pursuing economic development. Thestate-driving labor laws are regarded as policies against capitalist market power.Nevertheless, transnational capitalists, rather than the state and workers, unexpectedlybecome the key actors in influencing the labor policies. In addition, the practice oflabor contract laws appears to a differential situation among international buyers andlocal governments. Through re-analyzing the relations among the states, workers andcapitalists according to their positions in Chinese economic transition, this paperattempts to introduce a new concept of “differential labor regime of repressiveness” toexplain how and why the outcomes of the labor laws turn out to be under-regulatedand differential. The under-regulated and differential outcomes highlight the fact thata better understanding on Chinese labor policies and its welfare regime could beachieved if we examine it from the perspective of multifarious institutionalfigurations.