ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the historical development of corporate forms and shareholder rights in China, and their respective features as well as the main causes and effects. Modern and contemporary history is divided into three distinctive periods: the Late Qing Dynasty from 1860 to 1911, the Republican Period from 1912 to 1948 and the People's Republic of China since its establishment in 1949; each distinctive period can be further divided into different phases. Directly influenced by the serious defeats in the First Opium War and Second Opium War, the Qing government launched the Self-Strengthening Movement. All enterprises including state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were then required to establish modern corporate governance structures as the kernel of modern enterprise transformation. Shareholders were destined to become the central players for substituting the traditional role of government in corporate activities. Apart from shareholder rights, directors' duties are undoubtedly another important way to reflect the position of shareholders.
