Meanwhile ，the 17Vietnamese occupation-based unions（known as？industrialunionsìin both Vietnam and China ）have gained more autonomy and their numberhas increased to 24.[87]One of these new occupation-based unions is the PublicSector Union，which was organized with technical assistance from the AustralianPublic Sector Union.[88]All told ，by 1996these occupation-based unions had 467，000members ，co-existing with the 2.6million trade union members.[89]In 1997，to further strengthen the occupation-based unions ，the unions of five industries（light industry，engineering and metallurgy ，chemical ，geology and energy ）were amalgamated into one large union ，the National Union of Industrial Workers.The vice-president of this new union views it as markedly different from the Chinesesystem of unions.Having spent eighteen months in Shanghai in the early 1990s ，he observes that in Vietnam there will be an increasing balance of strength betweenthe occupation-based unions and the locality unions ，whereas in China the occupation-basedunions only exist in name.[90]There are also plans to create a new union federationto incorporate all of the small unions and organizations of the non-state sector.[91]
If the occupation-based unions are allowed to build up their strength ，theymay be in a better position to negotiate with the state and employers'associationson behalf of workers in their particular industry or profession.With time the occupation-basedunion structure might replace the previous enterprise-based union structure whereunion strength was fragmented and absorbed by the management，the Party，and government.As yet there are no signs of this happening in China.[92]
In China，by contrast，people working in the same profession have not beenallowed to form any kind of organization.For example ，when taxi drivers in thesouthern cities of Shenzhen （1994），Guangzhou（1995）and Zhuhai （1996）tookto the streets and agitated to set up their own unions，the local authorities resisted.In Zhuhai several of the strike leaders were arrested and sentenced to prison.[93]When a group of migrant workers wrote a letter to the Guangdong Provincial GeneralTrade Union asking for its support for them to set up a ？migrant workers'tradeunion ì，the union's reply in the local newspaper was that to set up such a unionwould contravene the trade union law.It advised that the workers could establisha union within the workplace，but not under the name of a？migrant workers'unionì。[94]Any workers who dare to set up any organizations that smack of autonomousproto-trade unions are likely to be arrested and charged with sedition.[95]Noris there any sign within the ACFTU structure of industrial unions'gaining any strength.Overarching general unions based on locality under the rein of local Communist Partycommittees continue to dominate the structure.
The growing divergence in the development of the unions in the two countriesis seen ，too，in the VGCL's gradual integration into the international labourmovement.Within the VGCL ，the Vietnamese industrial unions began to join theinternational union federations once their right to do so was guaranteed by thetrade union law.[96]Once the Party allowed the VGCL more autonomy，moreover ，the latter actively sought technical and financial assistance from unions aroundthe world.For example，in the late 1980s the VGCL sought contact with the AustralianCouncil of Trade Unions ，which then sent a delegation to Vietnam in 1990.Sincethen various Australian trade unions have built up ties with the VGCL that go beyondthe formalistic ？friendshipìlevel.The Vietnamese Communist Party and the VGCLhave no qualms either in sending staff to Italy and Denmark for training in whatthe Chinese would call？bourgeois ìtrade-union organizational techniques.Thiskind of receptivity to foreign penetration is unimaginable in China today （eventhough the government is keen to expand China's penetration by foreign capital andby foreign business-management schools）。The ACFTU's isolation has been aggravatedby the Tiananmen events of 1989.International union sympathy and financial supporthas gone in exile to Han Dongfang ，who headed the Beijing Autonomous Worker'sFederation during the 1989movement.At the yearly International Labor Organization（ILO ）convention in Geneva ，ACFTU delegates are put on the defensive when HanDongfang takes to the floor.The ACFTU is losing out on exposure to internationallabour issues and assistance，which is precisely what is becoming quite usefulin helping to build up the VGCL.