Currently, apart from those in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, there are 120 million trade union members and nearly 1 million grassroots-level trade union organizations in China, all of them are under the unified leadership of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. In China, the first trade union organization, the Packing Workers’ Federation, was established in Guangzhou in 1851.In 1908, the Qing Government promulgated the first law on association in China, namely the Law on Association and Assembly. On 24 February 1922, the Guangzhou Municipal Government adopted the Regulations on Trade Unions, which provided that any laborer who had reached the age of 16 can organize trade unions and that trade unions were legal persons. This was the beginning of trade union legislation in China. During the Second Revolutionary Civil War, the following laws and regulations on trade unions had been promulgated: Organic Law of Red Trade Unions, which was adopted by the Administrative Committee of Jiangxi Province in January 1930 and provided for the nature and tasks of trade unions, and the Draft Trade Union Law, which was adopted by the Congress of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers in Western Fujian Province in March 1930. Trade union movement developed rapidly during the first 3 years of the People’s Republic of China, but suffered great loses under the influence of "ultra-leftist" ideology in the years that followed, almost totally destroyed during the period of "Cultural Revolution", and started to develop again in the late 1970s. On 29 June 1950, the Central People’s Government promulgated the first Trade Union Law of the People’s Republic of China. In April 1992, the second Trade Union Law was adopted by the National People’s Congress. On 27 October 2001, a decision to revise the Trade Union Law was made by the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People’s Congress. The revised Trade Union Law is the third one in the history of the People’s Republic of China. Trade unions are mass organizations of the working class formed by the workers and staff members on a voluntary basis. Trade unions fulfil their basic task of upholding the rights and interests of workers and staff members through the following two methods: first, to uphold rights and interests at their sources, namely to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of employees through the participation in the drafting of laws and regulations and the making of policies and plans. Second, upholding rights and interests through concrete actions, namely by providing assistance to individual employees or a group of employees with similar problems in the protection of their rights and interests. According to the Trade Union Law and Trade Union Statute of China, trade unions in China are organized according to the following two principles: the basic organizational principle of democratic centralism and organizational and leadership principle of combination of industrial organizations with local organizations. Both the 1992 Trade Union Law and the 2001 Trade Union Law provide that the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, a local trade union federation or an industrial trade union enjoys the status of a legal person in the capacity of a social organization. A basic-level trade union organization, which has acquired the qualifications of a legal person as prescribed in the General Principles of the Civil Law, shall be granted according to law the status of a legal person as a social organization. Several theoretical questions: Allocation of fund by the employers for trade union activities; Legislation on the right to strike; The nature of the Trade Union Law and its status in the legal system.
