Exit the Dragon?: Privatization and State Control in China

Nominated for the 2006 IPEG Book Prize

Drawing on the research of ten scholars from around the world, this volume evaluates China’s privatization experience by investigating the efficiency and fairness of the sale process and the credibility of the government’s ambition to create world-class state-owned conglomerates.

• One of the first book-length works to evaluate China’s privatization experience.
  
• Draws on the research of ten scholars from around the world including Liu Xiaoxuan (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Sun Laixiang (SOAS, London University) and Chih-jou Jay Chen (Academic Sinica).
  
• Investigates the factors determining the decision by government officials to sell or retain their firms.
  
• Evaluates how credible the government’s ambition is to create world-class state-owned conglomerates.
  
• Compares the efficiency and fairness of the sales against the lessons learned from the former Soviet bloc.
  
• Explains how the state is withdrawing from key sectors such as automobiles, energy and telecoms.

Stephen Green is Senior Economist, China, for Standard Chartered Bank, Shanghai, and formerly Head of Asia Programme at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London. He holds a First Class Honours degree from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has also studied in Taiwan, at Fudan University in Shanghai and at Culture and Language University in Beijing. His articles have appeared in the Financial Times, the South China Morning Post, and the Asian Wall Street Journal and he is a regulator commentator on China for CNN and the BBC.

Dr Guy S. Liu obtained his PhD from Oxford University, and specialized in economics of industry with a particular interest to China’s enterprise reform. He is a lecturer at Brunel University and professor of Sichuan University in China. He also lectures on the Chinese economy and industry for the visiting MBA/EMBA programme at Oxford University. He has been invited as a guest editor of a special issue on China’s economy and enterprise reform for a number of journals including China Economic Review, Economics of Planning and Corporate Governance – An International Review. He has also been involved in policy advisory work on Chinese enterprise reform for both the British and the Chinese government. He is a regular commentator on China’s economic affairs for the BBC and Free Asia.