ABSTRACT
To speed up the commercialization of China’s rural economy, China’s leaders decided to foster the growth of the rural private sector. The limited growth of the rural economy under the Maoist system of bureaucratic control and the improving rural standard of living following the liberalization and expansion of the private sector demonstrate the usefulness of this policy. Nevertheless, while studies addressing the reemergence of the private sector in China have taken as their starting point the myriad problems confronted by private entrepreneurs, 1 this chapter considers the dilemmas confronted by some of their competitors—the supply and marketing cooperatives (SMC), service companies, and other state-run service industries that to date have administered important functions in the rural economy.
