Globalisation, 'Chinese walls' and industrial labour

This article analyses how globalisation - in particular China's integration into global trade and investment flows - has affected industrial labour. I t is argued that globalisation has led to discernible pressures as a result of the concentration of world market production in the coastal areas and t he heavy reliance on reprocessing exports. These pressures have been mediat ed by the Chinese institutional structure which includes social rules, the institutional legacy of state socialism and the interests and autonomy of g overnments. The implications for industrial labour of the combination of th e pressures from globalisation and the Chinese institutional structure are examined.