This book analyses the management of human resources in Chinese industry, covering the period from 1949 to present, particularly focusing on the period of economic reforms in the 1980s and early 1990s. For four decades Chinese workers have enjoyed job security under the ''iron rice-bowl'' employment system. This arrangement is now under threat from the recent labour reforms and the emergence of a nascent labour market. The study looks in detail at these developments in the North-Eastern cities, China''s industrial heartland.
