Active Issues / Legal Reform / State Security and State Secrets / HRIC Resources / The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU)

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU)

A significant portion of the proscribed statistics and data pertaining to labor “belong” to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). Described on the organization’s official Web site as “the voluntary choice of hundreds of millions of workers,” the ACFTU is the only workers’ federation allowed to operate in China, representing 135 million workers in 31 provincial, autonomous regional and municipal federations and 10 national industrial trade unions. Any union established must be registered under the ACFTU.

Because no independent trade unions are allowed to operate outside government control, the very fact that the ACFTU (along with the State Secrets Bureau) is the co-issuer and co-enforcer of one of the state secrets regulations indicates that the government considers the ACFTU to be a quasi-governmental body. Indeed, the ACFTU remains essentially an arm of the government and a subsidiary organ of the Chinese Communist Party, designed to facilitate and support government policies within enterprises and to ensure the continued control of the working population.

When workers organize work stoppages, strikes or demonstrations, the ACFTU is at best an observer and at worst a co-instrument in putting down labor unrest. In some cases, the ACFTU is known to have directly restrained or detained workers representatives.

As the co-drafter and co-enforcer of secrets provisions that in effect cloak the true dangers of the industrial workplace and curtail the potential for increased awareness and information that would benefit workers, the ACFTU’s stance is fundamentally contrary to the very purpose of a trade union, let alone its own mandate.