THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHINA'S SOES

Abstract

Since the 1990s China has largely adopted the Singapore SOE model, which relies on private-like corporatization and the pursuit of profit. This paper replays the political and economic chess to answer why the Singapore model was chosen. To this end, it demonstrates how the transformation through corporatization, under a newly founded legal system called the “State-Owned-Assets management,” was gradually embraced by Chinese administrative bureaucrats even though the change faced serious institutional obstacles. This article concludes with a critique of how the transformation of China's SOEs has now mutated to resemble a system of Crown property.