, Columnist
Private Companies Are Driving China's Growth
The prevailing image of state capitalism in China is dated and wrong. As a new book demonstrates, private companies are now the country's main engine of economic growth.
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In China, the conventional wisdom holds, state-owned enterprises dominate the economy, private companies are often starved for credit, and the central government exerts substantial influence.
But here's a quiz: What share of China's gross industrial output will come from state enterprises this year? I have tried this question on friends, even knowledgeable economists, and the responses I hear fall between 50 percent and 75 percent. The correct answer is only about 25 percent, a big drop from more than 75 percent in 1978.