Con chi facciamo business? Il delicato equilibrio tra poteri statali e privati nelle aziende cinesi

The economic reforms have produced great transformations in China and have offered the conditions for the private enterprise to operate. As a matter of fact, however, many elements show that the State is steadily at the guide of China’s ascending capitalism. Although thousands of private companies are taking advantage of the the vastity of Chinese market, key sectors such as energy, telecommunications and media, are in the hands of state owned companies. According to scholars and experts, it is difficult that these oligopolies might give way to free competition any soon for a number of reasons. First, acting as CEO in a state-owned enterprise is often part of a career as a party bureaucrat. The process of interchange between corporate and political positions cannot but reinforce the strength of a ruling party, that for the last decades has played a crucial role as architect of the economic and social transformation. Secondly, small and medium private entrepreneurs, though having to struggle more than state owned companies, have since refrained from building any alternative role. As long as the management of state owned enterprises reaches acceptable levels of economic efficiency, it seems likely that the model of Chinese State Capitalism will hold.