Workers’ Transition from China’s Coal Sector

Phasing out the fossil fuel industries, particularly the coal sector, is one of the most urgent tasks to mitigate human induced climate change. However, how would the workers and communities thrive after losing work in coal? While some just transition models suggest policy strategies and tools that may assist just transition, they mostly remain on the policy level and largely rooted in western democratic societies. China, as the largest producer of coal in the world, has undertaken measures to phase out its coal workers, but how the Chinese coal workers experience their transition and how their life is after leaving coal remains largely understudied. Building on recent research on China’s just transition, this work-in-progress paper uses qualitative interviews with former coal workers from both public and private mines, to address the social processes of the coal workers shifting to non-coal sectors. The initial literature review, including my own past research on Chinese coal workers, suggests that understanding the historical context of China’s labor transition, together with the structure of Chinese domestic politics can shed light on China’s current practices in coal workers’ transition. For example, even though it appears to comply with the international norm in limiting global warming, in fact it merges into the larger downsizing project of the state owned enterprises, which began in late 1970s following the economic reform. Focusing on the social transition being just is important but since it is often related to private property rights within capitalism, we may consider moving forward with the transition by building trust and cooperation for interdependence.