Low pay, poor working conditions and abusive managers are well documented at many Chinese-owned enterprises in Vietnam, as are the strikes and protests staged by workers in response. Joe Buckley examines several recent such protests and suggests that these problems are not just confined to Chinese enterprises but are found across Vietnam, regardless of enterprise ownership.

In the five years since the Guangdong collective contract regulations went into effect, there have been 1,279 collective worker protests in the province, accounting for 12.7 percent of all the incidents recorded on China Labour Bulletin’s Strike Map.

Xu Lizhi died five years ago today. He left behind a remarkable body of work that chronicles not only his own frustrations and unhappiness but those of millions of other workers across China.