SOEs reform from a governance perspective and its relationship with the privately owned publicly listed corporation in China

China has long had associations similar to partnerships, companies and trusts. That they should have had, then and have presently, a concept of ‘kinship’ embedded in a long cultural tradition is unsurprising ( Jamieson, 1921; Ruskola, 2000: 1599). Probably some element of kinship was often a cementing factor in European business relationships and in some parts of Europe, is still vital (Wilson, 1995: 24; Colli and Rose, 1999: 47). But in the West, at least in the Anglo-American corporate world, the dominant norm is that of a ‘nexus of contracts’ as perceived by economists (rather than lawyers). Such differences may mean inevitable limits to the convergence of law and corporate governance in systems with disparate basic norms (Ruskola, 2000; MacNeil, 2002: 2).