China Issues 15th Five-Year Plan for Trade Union Work

China’s All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has issued its 15th Five-Year Plan for the labor movement and trade union work, a comprehensive policy document that will guide the country’s labor sector through 2030. The plan, approved by the Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of China, was publicly announced on August 20 and serves as the guiding framework for high-quality development of trade union work during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period (2026-2030), according to Xinhua News.

A Strategic Blueprint for Labor

The plan is structured across three major sections, 13 parts, and 40 articles, totaling approximately 5,600 characters. It deploys key work tasks across 11 areas, including firmly grasping the correct political direction of trade union work, strengthening ideological and political guidance for workers, mobilizing workers to contribute and innovate, deepening industrial worker team building reform, and improving the quality of trade union rights protection services, as reported by Workers’ Daily.

The document also establishes 12 specific indicators across 8 areas, covering the cultivation of “great country craftsman” talent, model worker innovation studios, trade union employment services, and union establishment and membership expansion. Nine special columns address trade union propaganda, cultural work, labor and economic work, and industrial worker team building reform.

Guiding Principles and Vision

The plan adheres to four guiding principles: correct direction, serving the overall situation, maintaining integrity and innovation, and seeking truth from facts. It emphasizes adherence to the Party’s comprehensive leadership over the labor movement and trade union work, and unswervingly following the path of socialist trade union development with Chinese characteristics.

According to the full text of the plan, the document sets goals through 2030, aiming for decisive progress in basically realizing socialist modernization. Key objectives include stronger ideological and political guidance for workers, a more prominent role for the working class as the main force, a more complete rights protection service system, and enhanced rule of law in trade union work.

A Century-Old Union at a New Starting Point

The plan arrives at a significant moment for China’s labor movement. The ACFTU, founded in 1925, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025. In April of that year, President Xi Jinping delivered a landmark speech at the celebration of the ACFTU’s centennial, emphasizing the importance of the working class and trade union work in China’s modernization drive. That speech serves as the guiding framework for the new plan, as documented by China’s government website.

“The ‘15th Five-Year Plan’ period is a critical period for consolidating the foundation and fully exerting efforts to basically realize socialist modernization, and it is also an important period for the century-old trade union to carry forward the past and open up the future at a new historical starting point,” the ACFTU head said in a Q&A session about the plan.

The drafting process was extensive. The ACFTU conducted 29 sub-field research projects, held expert seminars, and organized 20 consultation forums across 10 provinces. The plan was personally overseen by Wang Dongming, Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and Chairman of the ACFTU, who made multiple instructions and personally reviewed and revised the document.

Key Priorities for 2026-2030

The plan places special emphasis on several emerging areas of labor policy. Notably, it highlights the protection of workers in new employment forms, including gig economy and platform workers. The document calls for pushing forward the establishment of a national smart trade union platform under the “AI+” initiative, aiming for “one-stop online services” for workers.

Other priorities include strengthening the rule of law in trade union work, resolutely safeguarding political security in the labor field, and expanding international engagement in global labor governance. The plan also emphasizes deepening trade union reform and construction, with a focus on digital transformation and modernization of union services.

Implementation and Forward Look

The plan emphasizes that “the vitality of a plan lies in its implementation.” It calls for strengthening organizational leadership, enhancing publicity and guidance, and regularly evaluating progress and effectiveness to ensure the plan is implemented with a “nail-spirit” approach.

This is the second five-year plan for China’s labor movement and trade union work, following the 14th Five-Year Plan issued in 2021. The new plan aligns with the broader 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2026-2030), which was approved at the 4th Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee in October 2025.

As China’s economy continues to transform and new forms of employment emerge, the implementation of this plan will be closely watched by labor observers both domestically and internationally. The coming years will reveal how effectively the ACFTU can translate these ambitious policy goals into tangible improvements for China’s hundreds of millions of workers.