ABSTRACT
By the end of the 1970s, private ownership had been virtually eliminated in China. The state and collective sectors were the predominant job providers as well as the foremost contributors to the command economy. At the time, it seemed inconceivable that public ownership in China could be diluted and that state assets might end up in private hands. Yet not even two decades later, the Chinese Communist Party took the bold step of transforming the ownership structure of small and medium-sized SOEs. Shortly after the central leadership gave privatization the green light, officials in many localities plunged into a frenzy of selling local public enterprises. The astonishing speed and full scope of privatization in some localities far surpassed Beijing’s expectations.
