Abstract
This fascinating publication is an excellent contribution on State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in China, dissecting their changing role and importance as an instrument of State Capitalism and Economic Statecraft. Divided into nine chapters, the book is interspersed with rich data and case studies on SOEs and their operations in China. The study is the result of several years’ research at the Hongkong and Sanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Business School of the Peking University. The book dispels many accepted assertions regarding SOEs in China beginning from their wholesale privatisation to their passivity in contributing to China’s economic rise. It reveals that the total number of enterprises numbering more than 150,000 is still owned by the Central and local governments. Their share of industrial assets amounts to 40% of the Chinese GDP, besides their share of the pie in Bank credits which is a halfway mark. Despite budget constraints and difficult economic scenario, the state keeps SOEs afloat. SOEs are often called the ‘eldest son’ of the Chinese economy. In the larger scheme of statecraft, they are the most trusted players in Chinese strategies which intend to continue to have these enterprises as the last outpost of the Chinese State (p. 3). more...