Industrial Reform in China Past Performance and Future Prospects

Industrial Reform in China is the first major attempt to explore the success of China's economic reform using studies of specific industries: the clothing, machine tool, and iron and steel industries, supplemented by analysis of official statistics. Particular emphasis is placed on thecomparison of management and production efficiency between township-village enterprises (TVEs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The authors discover that the efficiency of TVEs has been enhanced by the transfer of technology, know-how, and marketing capacity from SOEs. In contrast, reform ofstate enterprises was found to have had limited impact. Given the enormous differences in efficiency between private and public ownership, it is clear that TVEs will continue to overwhelm SOEs, a process which will in time transform the Chinese economy into a true market-based system.