On Aug 31, 2010, at 7:57 AM, Marv Gandall wrote:
> World Bank data shows investment by state-run companies accounted for a bigger share of Chinese growth last year, mainly the effect of the massive stimulus injected into the economy to counter the global downturn. Most spending was on infrastructure and a vast expansion of credit by state-run banks; the proportion of production by state-controlled companies only edged up slightly. But there's no compelling evidence that heightened state intervention in China - as everywhere else in the wake of the crisis - marks a reversal of the decades-old trend towards private ownership and property relations and a social democratic political culture, despite it having inevitably "fuelled discussion among analysts" about whether the economy is really headed in that direction or remains socialist, as the state and party continue to maintain. Still, the report notes that 99 of the top 100 publicly listed companies are majority controlled by the state, a role assigned to the public sector which goes far beyond what European social democrats and unambiguously pro-capitalist Asian regimes earlier envisaged for the commanding heights of the economy.
Funny to read Western (and Chinese sources sympathetic with Western) criticisms of China in 2010. "Be more like us!" Why?
Doug