Seminar: Reform of state-owned enterprises and party-business relations in China: 10 April 2018

On Tuesday 10 April 2018, Professor Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard (柏思德) of the Department of International Economics and Management and Director of the China Studies Program at Copenhagen Business School, hosted a seminar on:

State-Owned Enterprise Reform and Party-Business Relations in China

Chinese business groups have grown into huge enterprises with significant economic and political clout. As a result of institutional reform, corporate restructuring, and listings in China and abroad, these business groups, especially within the energy sector, have become so big, profitable and well-connected that they are challenging the authority of the central government. Yet, increasingly, business leaders are appointed to government positions as ministers or provincial governors.

What is the mechanism of this elite circulation and how does it impact the power relations between Party-state- business in China as well as the likelihood of fundamental state-owned enteprise (SOE) reform?

The seminar advanced the notion of ‘fragmented integration’ to characterize the evolving relationship between business groups and the Party-state.

The seminar also argued that in order to abolish vested interests and interest politics, reform of the role, function, and organization of Chinese business groups is necessary.

The event was organized by the the Confucius Institute at the University of Helsinki.

More information about the seminar can be found on the website of the University of Helsinki Chinese Studies.

Date and time: 10: 15 – 11:45, 10 April 2018

Venue: Unioninkatu 35, SH 114, University of Helsinki

About the speaker

Professor Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard, Department of International Economics and Management and Director of the China Studies Program, Copenhagen Business School

Professor Brødsgaard is the author or editor of 30 books, most recently Chinese Politics as Fragmented Authoritarianism: Earthquakes, Energy and Environment (2016); From Accelerated Accumulation to Socialist Market Economy in China: Economic Discourse and Development From 1953 to the Present (2017) and Critical Readings on the Chinese Communist Party, 4 vols. (2017).

Professor Brødsgaard has held visiting research appointments in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and the USA. He is, among others, member of the International Advisory Board of the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore; member of the Board of Sino-Danish University Centre for Education and Research, and member of the Board of Directors, the Danish-Chinese Business Forum. He is also a Non-resident Professor at the Institute of Public Policy, South China University of Technology; an Honorary Research Fellow at the Research Centre for Contemporary China, School of Government, Peking University.