ABSTRACT
No neat divide exists in China between the public sector of the economy and the private. Hybrid forms of ownership span the two domains. Private firms pretend to be public and public firms spawn private offshoots. The scene has changed dramatically from the pre-reform era. Then, those bold enough to engage in private trade might find themselves reviled as ‘capitalist tails’ – leftovers from the days before nationalisation had severed the head of capitalism in the 1950s. ‘Better socialist weeds than capitalist flowers’ was the proud boast of slogans.
