China’s workers are shaking off the mantle of individual victims and emerging as a strong, unified and increasingly active collective force. They are focused on basic social and economic rights; earning a living wage, creating a safe work environment and being treated with dignity and respect by the employer…Strikes are often precipitated and aggravated by the lack of an effective factory trade union and the absence of any mechanism for constructive dialogue between workers and management…The ability of workers to organize protests was considerably enhanced by the rapid development of social media in China…However…[m]any workers were sacked or forced to resign in the wake of their strike action. Local authorities in China continued to intervene in strikes and worker protests, trying to affect a resolution as quickly as possible…Police intervened in about 20 percent of the strikes recorded in this period and conflicts sometimes arose leading to beatings and arrests.