Labour process theory and research on the changing nature of work and employment in China

China has undergone profound social and economic transformations over the last four decades. Deeply influenced by globalisation and capital-oriented marketisation, China has transitioned from a planned economy under state socialism to a market economy integrated into the global economy. As China becomes the ‘world’s workshop’, it has also experienced rapid industrialisation, the transformation of work and employment, and the reformation of the Chinese working class. Based on a review of the engagement of labour process theory (LPT) in China labour studies, this article suggests that the LTP has provided important insights and a theoretical framework for scholars to understand the empirical reality of the changing nature of work and employment in China in the reform era. The LPT’s capacity to connect the workplace to a broader political economy has allowed it to continue to expand its scope of analysis and engage with new developments and emerging issues in the Chinese workplace, such as the rise of digital platform labour, informal and precarious work, and workplace regimes in global value chains. Meanwhile, China labour scholars have made important contributions to the LPT by adapting it to the Chinese context and theorising the Chinese experience. Through a workplace-based approach, China labour scholars have theorised the role of the Chinese central and local states in shaping various factory regimes, expanded on Chinese workers’ diverse subjectivities in research on labour process, and developed new concepts such as the ‘dormitory labour regime’ that connects productive and social reproductive spheres.