Wal-Mart goes out of its way to discourage trade unions at its outlets around the world, but in China, fifteen of Wal-Mart's 60 outlets are now home to unions.

Wal-Mart made commitments on August 9 that it would help China's union authority establish branches in all its stores across the country. This week Chinese media reported that the call for unions at Wal-Mart came from China's president Hu Jintao, himself.

The Beijing News reported that Hu wrote a letter to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and said, "Do a better job of building [Communist ] Party organizations and trade unions in foreign-invested enterprises."

Trade unions have since been set up in the cities of Shenzhen, Nanjing, Jinan, Fuzhou, Shenyang, Dalian and Nanchang.