Abstract
Emphasizing relations between state and society, the author examines Chinese labor laws from a global supply chain perspective, highlighting the roles of international buyers and Taiwanese investors in their interactions with labor laws. State-driven labor laws in post-socialist China are regarded as state policies in opposition to capitalist market power. However, transnational capitalists (rather than the state and workers) unexpectedly serve as key actors influencing labor policies. Further, labor contract laws are perceived as differential situations by international buyers and local governments. By reanalyzing relations among the state, workers, and capitalists according to their positions in the current Chinese economic transition, the author introduces the concept of ＂differential labor regime of repressiveness＂ to explain how and why labor law outcomes are both differential and insufficiently regulated. These outcomes underscore the fact that a better understanding of Chinese labor policies and welfare regime are achievable if they are examined via multifarious institutional configurations.