Government-industry relations in China : a review of the art of the state

Abstract

For those who have studied the political economy of China since the onset of urban-industrial reform in the 1980s, the state looks considerably less powerful today than it once was. Market mechanisms and state regulation have been brought in to replace direct control and planning, whilst the importance of state ownership has diminished through the effective privatisation of many State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the emergence of new private economic sectors and actors. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the state has withdrawn from economic activity. On the contrary, the state is alive and well and exercising considerable control over the nature of economic activity, albeit in different less direct ways than before