Social Sciences in China

Vol. 35, No. 4, 2014

A Quantitative Estimate of the Dominant Position of Public Ownership in China and Trends in Its Development

(Abstract)

Pei Changhong

By setting the value of productive assets under different types of ownership of the means of production as the marginal criterion for measuring the relative position of each form of ownership, we estimate the scale of public and non-public sector assets in primary industry in China and changes in their relative proportions. Further, on the basis of previous estimates, we provide an extended estimate of the scale of public and non-public sector assets in secondary and tertiary industry and changes in their relative proportions. We found that in 2012, total productive assets in primary, secondary and tertiary industry were 487.53 trillion RMB, of which the public sector accounted for 53 percent, or 258.39 trillion RMB. In secondary and tertiary industry, the non-public sector contributed 67.59 percent and 75.20 percent respectively in terms of valueadded and employment. This indicates the vitality of China’s basic socialist economic system, in which public sector assets retain a dominant position and the non-public sector makes the primary economic contribution, and thus provides a theoretical justification for ownership reform in the primary stage of socialism in China and the “two unswervinglies” policy.