From Green Left Weekly:
In 1997, Beijing formalised a policy to massively extend the 1990s “experimental” privatisation of state firms. The big state firms were said to be off limits, but what constituted “big” was never spelled out.
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission was mandated by the State Council ” the central government’s highest executive body ” to control 178 “big state firms”. The official Chinese media often says there are 474 “key state-owned firms” and 186 state firms owned solely by the central government.
The bulk of China’s state firms, which since the early 1950s had formed the backbone of the country’s post-capitalist economy, received Beijing’s official blessing to be rapidly sold off.
According to a December 1, 2004, People’s Daily report, China’s stock of state firms has dwindled from 238,000 in 1998 to 150,000, accounting for less than 40% of the country’s economic output. Chinese finance ministry official Zhou Fang told the July 1, 2003, Vietnam Investment Review weekly that the public sector accounted for less than 25% of China’s GDP.
