'This is the most sensible and the scariest book on China's economic reforms that you will come across this year … His theoretical contributions to debate on the role of the state, ownership and regulation in transitional economies are also to be commended for their common-sense empirical grounding and clarity exposition … This book is required reading for anyone working on Chinese reforms or on reform in transitional economies generally. Even if they do not agree with Steinfeld's conclusions, they will have to address the arguments developed. I found it an enormously impressive and valuable piece of work.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

• List of tables and figures; Preface; 1. Introduction: China's ailing state enterprises; Part I. Conceptual Approaches to Post-Socialist Enterprise Reform: 2. Property rights, privatization and the state-owned firm; 3. The nested problems dynamic: an alternative approach; Part II. Enterprise Case Studies: The Commanding Heights in Transition: 4. The living museum of iron and steel technology; 5. King of the red chips: Ma'anshan steel and the debacle of the 'public' SOE in China; 6. Shougang: the rise and fall of an industrial giant; Part III. Reassessing Chinese Patterns of Economic Development: 7. Extending the argument: budget constraints and patterns of growth in China; 8. Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

'This is the most sensible and the scariest book on China's economic reforms that you will come across this year … His theoretical contributions to debate on the role of the state, ownership and regulation in transitional economies are also to be commended for their common-sense empirical grounding and clarity exposition … This book is required reading for anyone working on Chinese reforms or on reform in transitional economies generally. Even if they do not agree with Steinfeld's conclusions, they will have to address the arguments developed. I found it an enormously impressive and valuable piece of work.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

• List of tables and figures; Preface; 1. Introduction: China's ailing state enterprises; Part I. Conceptual Approaches to Post-Socialist Enterprise Reform: 2. Property rights, privatization and the state-owned firm; 3. The nested problems dynamic: an alternative approach; Part II. Enterprise Case Studies: The Commanding Heights in Transition: 4. The living museum of iron and steel technology; 5. King of the red chips: Ma'anshan steel and the debacle of the 'public' SOE in China; 6. Shougang: the rise and fall of an industrial giant; Part III. Reassessing Chinese Patterns of Economic Development: 7. Extending the argument: budget constraints and patterns of growth in China; 8. Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

'This is the most sensible and the scariest book on China's economic reforms that you will come across this year … His theoretical contributions to debate on the role of the state, ownership and regulation in transitional economies are also to be commended for their common-sense empirical grounding and clarity exposition … This book is required reading for anyone working on Chinese reforms or on reform in transitional economies generally. Even if they do not agree with Steinfeld's conclusions, they will have to address the arguments developed. I found it an enormously impressive and valuable piece of work.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

• List of tables and figures; Preface; 1. Introduction: China's ailing state enterprises; Part I. Conceptual Approaches to Post-Socialist Enterprise Reform: 2. Property rights, privatization and the state-owned firm; 3. The nested problems dynamic: an alternative approach; Part II. Enterprise Case Studies: The Commanding Heights in Transition: 4. The living museum of iron and steel technology; 5. King of the red chips: Ma'anshan steel and the debacle of the 'public' SOE in China; 6. Shougang: the rise and fall of an industrial giant; Part III. Reassessing Chinese Patterns of Economic Development: 7. Extending the argument: budget constraints and patterns of growth in China; 8. Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.