A year ago, Shanghai cooperatives were one of the few global examples of cooperative development, with a handful of factories operating in the city.
Since then, however, it has been hard to see the cooperative movement grow beyond China.
In recent months, the factory closures have become a source of contention.
In November, a cooperative in the northern city of Zhengzhou announced it would close and sell off its goods to a third party.
The cooperative’s president, Zhao Xiaohua, accused local officials of failing to provide adequate planning and safety measures.
Zhao’s comments sparked anger in China, where most cooperative members fear their businesses will be shut down.
As part of a crackdown on the “anti-cooperative” movement, China has introduced new regulations for cooperative construction.
While some say these new rules may have been necessary to prevent the closures, others say the measures are too broad.
Cooperative organisations are now facing challenges to their operations, with workers unable to access their own property and, in some cases, forced to work on a site that they do not own.
Many of the closures have been in the past year, as cooperatives have struggled to survive.
Shanghai’s cooperatives are still thriving, despite the closures.
But now the country’s government is trying to regulate their future.
In a recent decree, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Urban Development (MLIAD) announced that it would introduce new regulations to restrict cooperatives from opening new factories and selling off their property.
According to the new regulations, cooperatives will have to establish a safety plan for workers and obtain approval from a local authority before they can open a new factory.
Cooperatives have already been hit with new regulations.
In February, a factory in the eastern city of Wuhan was shut down after an explosion at a new facility.
The workers and local officials said the fire had been caused by a faulty fuse, and the factory closed for good.
Cooperatively built by China Cooperative Investment Company, a non-profit organisation set up to build and manage cooperatives in the country, the Wuhans factory has a small staff and was not designed to operate in a factory.
The factory has not yet been rebuilt.
“In the future, the company will not be able to reopen,” Wuhuan’s cooperative director told Al Jazeera.
“We have to make a new decision and then we’ll see.”
Cooperatives also face new challenges in the US, where many are still in the process of building out their operations.
In January, the US Congress passed legislation to create the Cooperative Development Corporation (CDC), a body that would oversee the development of cooperatives.
In the first year of the new law, cooperatively-owned factories and cooperative-run businesses are to be allowed to operate without the involvement of government agencies, but the CDC is still only a regulatory body.
According the US Department of Labor, the CDG’s sole purpose is to oversee the growth and operation of cooperatively owned businesses.
Cooperats are also facing new challenges as they continue to expand and open new factories.
The International Cooperatives Federation, an organisation set-up to help cooperatives open new factory sites, has been busy expanding its workforce.
The federation has been able to hire around 200 workers and has opened a second factory in Atlanta, Georgia, this year.
However, the Atlanta factory, which was supposed to be fully operational by early next year, has not started yet.
“Cooperatives have been working hard, and we have been able,” said Joanna Smith, the federation’s president.
“But we are still facing a lot of challenges, especially in the area of workforce training.
We need to have better training for our workers.”
Smith told Aljazeera that the US has already seen some cooperats close their factories and move production to other areas of the country.
“There are other cooperatives that are going to open up in the future.
But right now, we are focusing on opening new factory site,” she said.
With the expansion of cooperats in the United States, the number of cooperators has doubled over the past five years.
In 2014, there were 1,818 cooperatives operating in US, compared to just 5,822 in 2011.
The US cooperatives market is booming, as many workers have started to use their savings to open a business, according to the US Chamber of Commerce.
But the growth of cooperatsties has also led to concerns about the safety of the workers and safety of their equipment.
Some of the factories that cooperatives own or operate have reported a series of deaths.
According a 2014 report by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), a US advocacy group, at least 1,000 worker deaths had been reported to the ILRF in 2014.
The ILRF says it has found more than 50 worker fatalities in the Chinese market since 2010.
The organisation’s director, David Suss