A Critical Weakness: China is Attempting to Embrace Property Rights


 

Publication Date: January 2008

Publisher: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace

Author(s): Jialin Zhang

Research Area: Economics; Government

Keywords: Property Rights; China

Type: Report

Coverage: China

Abstract:

Property rights in China are poorly defined, which is why the nation has an underdeveloped, inefficient market economy known for corruption, abuse of power, and an expanding gap between the rich and the poor. The Chinese government acknowledges more than twenty types of ownership. Policy makers and academics now realize that without clear property rights, a market economy cannot prosper, yet in practice, property laws remain murky, and obscurity and confusion persist.