What the Constitution Says about SOE Reform

Reform of China's state-owned enterprises has always been a good topic for debate, both at home and abroad. It is also a complicated topic. There are many aspects of SOE reform, and one is the constitution of the People's Republic.

The latest amendment to the constitution was made in March 2004. Since then, official statements in major government and Communist Party documents about public ownership and the state-owned part of the economy have remained unchanged. The core of those statements is "the dominant role of public ownership, with the state-owned economy playing a leading role" in the national economy. Those words, in fact, appear in the constitution.