ABSTRACT
The emergence of the private sector is beginning to change the profile and dynamics of the Chinese economy, including its institutional framework ( Asia Monitor, 2003; Dickson, 2003; Gregory ampentity Tenev, 2001; Li and Rozelle, 2003; Oi, 1995; Tsai, 2002; Wang, 2004; Wiemer and Tian, 2001). Historical dependence on state-owned enterprises and latterly on public–private partnerships in the ownership and management of township and village enterprises appears to be decreasing as the private economy grows (Cooke, 2005; The Economist, 2000), and as ownership structures are being reformed; for example by addressing the tendency for some private businesses to wear the ‘red hat’ of collective ownership (e.g. Tsai, 2002: 130). Garnaut et al. (2001) have described these changes in ownership as China’s ‘quiet revolution’ and the third major institutional transformation of the reform period.
