ABSTRACT
In the process of development, the private sector has developed complex and intimate relationships with administrators and other ownership sectors. In 1980s, the need to revise the accepted concept of the private sector in the light of the facts gave rise to a lively debate and some energetic theoretical gymnastics in China, revolving around three key issues of employment and exploitation, income distribution, and state dominance and control of the economy. The reassessment of the private sector was part of a much wider debate on the structure of ownership under socialism and the problems of China's state sector and how to overcome them. The role of local authorities, whether local government cadres or officials at the lower levels of vertical bureaucracies like the Bureau of Industry and Commerce (ICB), in developing private business in China highlights one of the major issues of the reforms: the mechanisms and extent of central control.
