ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on vendor management in the past six decades (1949–2012) in the People’s Republic of China. It looks back into the changes in vendor management policy during this period, excavating the deeply buried mechanism, hidden order and key elements that have shaped and restricted the choices of and changes in urban vendor management policy in China. It outlines the understanding and interpretation of government actions or incidents in today’s urban vendor management. The systematic investigation into the history of vendor management reveals the hidden order that has shaped and restricted the practices and changes in urban vendor management policy in China, i.e. their interrelation and interaction.
(The author is a Lecturer at the Teaching and Research Division of Public Administration at the Shanghai Administration Institute.)
