The role of the of the contracting system in the management reform of state-owned enterprises of the People's Republic of China in 1978-1993

The object of the study is the contracting system as an element of the reform of state-owned enterprises of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1993; the subject of the study is the introduction of the contracting system in the context of political and economic reforms in this period. The relevance of the article is due to the renewed discussion in academic and political-managerial circles about alternatives to "shock therapy" as a complex of radical socio-economic reforms resorted to by the countries of the former socialist bloc as part of the transition to a capitalist economy. The authors analyze the initial stage of economic transformations and their main mechanisms in the People's Republic of China, which followed the path of progressive transformation and preserved the foundations of the socio-political structure. The purpose of this research is to study the features of the contracting system implemented at state–owned enterprises of the People's Republic of China as a tool to improve the efficiency of enterprise management, without resorting to changing the function of the state as their owner. The objectives of this study are to consider the ideological justifications for the reform of state-owned enterprises; to analyze the normative legal acts adopted by the state authorities of the People's Republic of China in order to create a legal framework for the implementation of the contracting system; to establish the specifics of the introduction and expansion of the contracting system in state-owned enterprises, taking into account errors in the experiments; to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the contracting system. The main methods that the authors use in the research are the analysis of primary sources, the principle of historicism, and a systematic approach. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the authors analyze in a broad historical context the political process of adopting regulatory documents regulating the reform process and establish the relationship between the strategic direction of the country's development and specific decisions taken regarding the transformation of state-owned enterprises. The authors conclude that the introduction of the PRC's contracting system made possible the partial separation of ownership and management rights and, thus, made it possible to begin solving the problem of increasing the efficiency of state-owned enterprises. Combined with the introduction of a "two-tier" pricing system, the contracting system gave rise to the formation of the first market elements, which laid the foundation for the introduction of a "system of modern enterprises" at later stages of the reform and for the formation of a socialist market economy as a whole.