Sino File | Why does China say and do opposite things on state firms?
Xi Jinping’s administration has contradicted itself in recent years, with public giants getting even bigger
Reforming the country’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been at the centre of China’s transition from a command economy to a free-market one since the launch of the capitalist reforms of the late 1970s.
And now it lies at the heart of the current leadership’s strategy for reviving the world’s second largest economy to restore China to greatness, which was named the government’s central task at a party plenum in 2013.
In a keynote policy statement, the leadership also called for, as well as the overhaul of SOEs, market forces to become more central to – and the government less involved in – the economy.
Nearly three years later, there is little progress to speak of.
Central to the endeavour is how much freedom the government will allow free enterprise, while restraining the state’s role in the economy.
