“State Ownership? Help!”But Different from What You ExpectedAgile State Firms, Diverse Ownership Forms and Business Models, Entrepreneurship and Start-Ups, and a Sharing Economy

This chapter examines the distinctive features of China’s property and ownership system, focusing on state ownership, land use, and the diversity of corporate forms. It explores the development of China’s sharing economy, which enables households and businesses to share resources, creating “prosumers”, blurring traditional distinctions between producers and consumers. The chapter highlights the role of technological infrastructure, mobile payments, and major internet corporations, as well as the cultural and experimental policy context that facilitates rapid implementation. It also analyzes China’s land system, where collective ownership and flexible land use rights, including the “Household Responsibility System”, balance incentives, responsibilities, and market participation without requiring full private property rights. Furthermore, the chapter investigates the pluralistic corporate landscape, encompassing state-owned enterprises, private firms, SMEs, Township and Village Enterprises, cooperatives, and social enterprises. This diversity enables resilience, innovation, and cooperative value-chain participation, challenging conventional neoliberal assumptions that efficiency depends on exclusive private ownership and profit maximization. The chapter thus illustrates how China’s pragmatic and experimental approach to ownership and property generates a dynamic, adaptive, and socially embedded economic system.