That these changes are so often ignored is baffling. According to Seymour and Anderson, who draw on accounts given by prisoners in China's labor camps, violence toward prisoners has dropped dramatically since the law was promulgated. Reform catalyzed by engagement is most extensive, however, in the transformation of the workplace. It is strange, then, that we seem to know the least about these changes, even though they directly affect a far greater number of citizens than any other area of Chinese democratization. My own research on the transformation of Chinese factories suggests that more than 60 percent of Shanghai's factories now have grievance-filing procedures and mediation committees, so that workers have formal avenues for filing grievances against superiors in the workplace.
Foreign investment influences the emergence of rights-based labor relations in fundamental ways.
Foreign investors generally seek Chinese partners that are predictable, stable, and knowledgeable about Western-style negotiations and business practices. Chinese factories, for their part, want desperately to land these partnerships, and they position themselves as suitable investment partners by adopting a number of stable, reform-minded business practices. Thus, the signaling of commitments to stable Western-style business practices leads to fundamental changes in the authority structures of the Chinese workplace. True, neither foreign investors nor Chinese companies are necessarily, or primarily, interested in human rights per se, but the negotiations in the marketplace lead to transformed workplaces. My research included a year of fieldwork, during which I conducted in-depth interviews with 155 managers and workers at medium to large factories in Shanghai, and with lawyers, business consultants, and government officials.