ABSTRACT
The first question that springs to mind when analyzing China as a capitalist political economy is whether China can by any means be termed such. In fact, when I recently mentioned to a US government official that China is undergoing a capitalist transition, he retorted that China was hardly capitalist since the state and state-owned enterprises continue to hold a central place in the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) economy. The view espoused here was one of “free markets” and “free enterprise” forming the basis of capitalism, a view that would set China apart from how capitalism is purportedly practiced in the West.
