Employees at Wal-Mart's China headquarters have set up a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) branch, the company and party said yesterday, amid a campaign to expand the party's presence in foreign companies.
The move follows the success of China's state-sanctioned labor body this year in setting up unions at the US retailer's outlets. Wal-Mart is one of China's biggest and most prominent foreign employers, with a workforce of 36,000 and 68 stores.
The party branch was set up on Friday at Wal-Mart headquarters in the city of Shenzhen, according to the party newspaper People's Daily and a Wal-Mart Stores spokesman, Jonathan Dong.
"Quite a few of our associates [employees] are party members already, so they have a right to establish branch organizations," Dong said.
Dong said he didn't know whether Wal-Mart would have any formal interaction with the branch or whether its establishment would affect operations. Employees who answered the phone at the CCP's Shenzhen office and wouldn't give their names said they had no information on what the branch at the Wal-Mart headquarters would do.
China's 70 million-member CCP and its affiliated All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTH) are trying to expand their presence in foreign companies to keep pace with a fast-changing society amid capitalist-style economic reforms.
State industry, their traditional base, has slashed millions of jobs while private companies are creating tens of millions more.
In a bid to stay relevant, the party has begun offering membership to entrepreneurs and others in the new private economy.
The ACFTU, the umbrella body for unions permitted by the government, has announced a target of setting up unions at 60 percent of China's 150,000 foreign companies by the end of this year.
An ACFTU spokesman, Li Jianmin, said Monday he had no figures on how close the body is to meeting that goal.
The party has not disclosed its own expansion target.
The party branch at Wal-Mart headquarters is the company's sixth in China, according to Dong.
The first was set up Aug. 12 in Shenyang. Party officials there said it would not interfere in store management. An official quoted by the state Xinhua news agency said the Shenyang branch would encourage members to "to play an exemplary role in doing a good job" and to help Wal-Mart grow.
Many foreign companies in China already have party branches, either officially or unofficially.
One of the earliest was at US-based cellphone maker Motorola in Tianjin. The branch officially was established in 1997, but news accounts say it was set up as early as 1990 and kept secret in order to avoid alarming Motorola management.
Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, resisted the creation of unions at its Chinese stores for two years before agreeing in August to help the ACFTU organize its workers.
The party and labor expansion campaigns were ordered in March by President Hu Jintao (
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
FLOOD RECOVERY: “Post-Typhoon Danas reconstruction special act” is expected to be approved on Thursday, the premier said, adding the flood control in affected areas would be prioritized About 200cm of rainfall fell in parts of southern Taiwan from Monday last week to 9am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Kaohsiung’s Taoyuan District (桃源) saw total rainfall of 2,205mm, while Pingtung County’s Sandimen Township (三地門) had 2,060.5mm and Tainan’s Nanhua District (南化) 1,833mm, according to CWA data. Meanwhile, Alishan (阿里山) in Chiayi County saw 1,688mm of accumulated rain and Yunlin County’s Caoling (草嶺) had 1,025mm. The Pingtung County Government said that 831 local residents have been pre-emptively evacuated from mountainous areas. A total of 576 are staying with relatives in low-lying areas, while the other 255 are in shelters. CWA forecaster
RSS