The legal construction of Private Economic Organisations and Enterprises in China: a systematic and comparative perspective

This article examines the legal evolution of private enterprise in the People’s Republic of China within the framework of post-1978 reforms. It reconstructs the normative trajectory from the initial ‘tolerance’ of individual economic activities (getihu), through their administrative regulation, to the formal recognition of private enterprises (siying qiye) and the subsequent typological differentiation of organisational forms. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of law as an instrument of ex post rationalisation and on the persistent integration of the private sector within a Party-state framework of political direction and control. The analysis further considers the constitutional consolidation of private sector and the progressive systematisation of business law. From a comparative perspective, it highlights the divergence between the Chinese typological approach and the abstract, general notion of entrepreneur in Italian law, underscoring the context-dependent nature of legal categories of enterprise. This contribution is based on the author’s direct study and interpretative analysis of Chinese legal sources in their original language. The arguments advanced herein accordingly reflect the author’s own reading of the above cited materials, without reliance on other translations or secondary doctrinal accounts.