Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-c654p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-25T15:23:59.858Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Network Anatomy of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2017

LI-WEN LIN
LI-WEN LIN*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia Peter A. Allard School of Law
*
*Email: Lin@allard.ubc.ca.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This Article provides an anatomy of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by unpacking their various relations with different types of state organs. It shows that Chinese SOEs are embedded in a network composed of dense and complex links with the state. Shareholding ties, albeit important, are only one of the many relations with the state. This network perspective provides a rather comprehensive overview of the basic architecture of China's state-owned sector. It illustrates important governance institutions that are unobservable from the laws on the book and distinctive from international standards. It clarifies some SOE behaviors that appear puzzling when taking the individual firm as the unit of analysis. It also raises challenging questions on various areas of law in the context of globalization.

Type
Review Article
Information
World Trade Review , Volume 16 , Issue 4: Symposium on State-Owned Enterprises in China , October 2017 , pp. 583 - 600
Copyright
Copyright © Li-Wen Lin 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Portions of this article draw upon Lin and Milhaupt (2013) and Lin (2013), with modifications and information updates.

References

Allen, F., Qian, J., and Qian, M. (2005), ‘Law, Finance, and Economic Growth in China’, Journal of Financial Economics, 77(1): 57–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aoki, M. and Patrick, H. (eds.) (1994), The Japanese Main Bank System, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bown, C. P. and Mavroidis, P. C. (2013), ‘One (Firm) Is Not Enough: A Legal-Economic Analysis of EC–Fasteners ’, World Trade Review, 12(2): 243–271.Google Scholar
Burns, J. P. (1994), ‘Strengthening Central CCP Control of Leadership Selection: The 1990 Nomenklatura’, The China Quarterly, 138: 458–491.Google Scholar
Chan, H. S. (2004), ‘Cadre Personnel Management in China: The Nomenklatura System, 1990–1998’, The China Quarterly, 179: 703–734.Google Scholar
Clarke, D. C. (2015), ‘The Bonding Effect in Cross-Listed Chinese Companies: Is it Real?’, GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 2015–55.Google Scholar
Coffee, J. C. (2002), ‘Racing towards the Top?: The Impact of Cross-Listings and Stock Market Competition on International Corporate Governance’, Columbia Law Review, 102(7): 1757–1831.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. (2012), ‘The Standing of State-Owned Entities under Investment Treaties’, in Sauvant, K. P. (ed.), Yearbook on International Investment Law and Policy 2010–2011, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 615–617.Google Scholar
Gold, T., Guthrie, D., and Wank, D. (2002), Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture, and the Changing Nature of Guanxi, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howie, F. J. and Walter, C. E. (2006), Privatizing China: Inside China's Stock Markets, New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Irwin, A., and Gallagher, K. P. (2014), ‘Exporting National Champions: China's PFDI Finance in Comparative Perspective’, Boston University Working Paper No. 6.Google Scholar
Keister, L. A. (1998), ‘Engineering Growth: Business Group Structure and Firm Performance in China's Transition Economy’, American Journal of Sociology, 104: 404–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, L.-W. (2007), ‘Corporate Social Accountability Standards in the Global Supply Chain: Resistance, Reconsideration, and Resolution in China’, Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law, 15(2): 321.Google Scholar
Lin, L.-W. (2009), ‘Legal Transplants through Private Contracting: Codes of Vendor Conduct in Global Supply Chains as an Example’, American Journal of Comparative Law, 57(3): 711–744.Google Scholar
Lin, L.-W. (2010), ‘Corporate Social Responsibility in China: Window Dressing or Structural Change?’, Berkeley Journal of International Law, 28(1): 64–100.Google Scholar
Lin, L.-W. (2013), ‘State Ownership and Corporate Governance in China: An Executive Career Approach’, Columbia Business Law Review, 2013, 743–800.Google Scholar
Lin, L.-W. (2015), ‘China's National Champions: Governance Change through Globalization?’, University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review, 11: 81–126.Google Scholar
Lin, L.-W. (2017a), ‘Reforming China's State-Owned Enterprises: From Structure to People’, The China Quarterly, forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, L.-W. (2017b), ‘Behind the Numbers: State Capitalism and Executive Compensation in China’, University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review, 12.Google Scholar
Lin, L.-W. and Milhaupt, C. J. (2013), ‘We Are the (National) Champions: Understanding the Mechanisms of State Capitalism in China’, Stanford Law Review, 65: 697–760.Google Scholar
Lin, L.-W. and Milhaupt, C. J. (2017), ‘Bonded to the State: A Network Perspective on China's Corporate Debt Market’, Journal of Financial Regulation, 3(1): 1–39.Google Scholar
Mauzy, D. K. and Milne, R. S. (2002), Singapore Politics under the People's Action Party, Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
McGregor, R. (2010), The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers, New York: Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
Milhaupt, C. J. and Zheng, W. (2015), ‘Beyond Ownership: State Capitalism and the Chinese Firm’, Georgetown Law Journal, 103: 665–722.Google Scholar
Naughton, B. (2008), ‘SASAC and Rising Corporate Power in China’, China Leadership Monitor, No. 24.Google Scholar
Ren, B., Au, K. Y., and Birtch, T. A. (2009), ‘China's Business Network Structure during Institutional Transitions’, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 26(2): 219–240.Google Scholar
SASAC (2010), China's State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Yearbook (in Chinese), Beijing: SASAC.Google Scholar
Temasek (2012), Temasek Review 2012: Extending Pathways, Temasek.Google Scholar
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2015), World Investment Report 2015, United Nation Google Scholar
Wasserman, S. and Faust, K. (1994), Social Network Analysis, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wells Fargo Securities. (2016), Are SOEs a Milestone among China's Neck? Google Scholar
Wu, M. (2016), ‘The WTO and China's Unique Economic Structure’, in Liebman, B. L., and Milhaupt, C. J. (eds.), Regulating the Visible Hand? The Institutional Implications of Chinese State Capitalism, Oxford University Press, pp. 313–350.Google Scholar
Zhang, A. H. (2016), ‘Antitrust Regulations of Chinese State-Owned Enterprise’, in Liebman, B. L. and Milhaupt, C. J. (eds.), Regulating the Visible Hand? The Institutional Implications of Chinese State Capitalism, Oxford University Press, pp. 85–107.Google Scholar
Zheng, H., Qi, J. and Wu, D. (2010), Management of State-Owned Assets and State Controlled Companies (in Chinese), Beijing.Google Scholar