There are two types of Chinese companies, public and private. Although there are thousands of public companies, there are 96 companies that register as property of the Chinese Central State. These companies are regulated by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), which is ruled by the State Council. The Council is the highest authority in the Chinese government; it is chaired by the Chinese Prime Minister. The Council is very important in the determination of the Chinese financial orientation abroad, since it is in charge of defining priority investment policies, supervises key entities involved in foreign financing, and approves the financing of projects starting at a USD$2.000 billion investment. Furthermore, many companies that register as state-owned, public sub-national companies, and private companies list in the stock markets in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Companies that register as central state-property are generally the ones who develop large projects abroad, both in the areas of infrastructure as well as in the extractive industry. Overall, these companies have complicated structures composed by specialized sub-companies. An illustrative example of this specialization is Sinohydro. In the 70s Sinohydro became an international company, nowadays it counts with 91 offices in 69 countries[1], 12 Holding Companies, and 20 subsidiary companies, all for the distinct aspects of their business. Two of their subsidiary companies figure as the most important in the construction of dams abroad. In turn, Sinohydro is a PowerChina subsidiary. Other examples of companies who figure as state-owned are China Gezhouba Group; China Harbord Engineering Company; China Railways Construction Corporation; Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco); CNOOC Oil & Gas; Hidro China, China Minmetals Nonferrus Metals Corporation; Shoungang Group; Sinopec; China Petroleum Company, State Grid, among others.
The public sub-national companies have different sizes and act under the guidelines of the SASAC provincial authorities. Also, there are many private Chinese companies. These two types of companies operate within China, as well as abroad. A phenomenon that is becoming more and more common is the fusion and acquisition of Chinese companies, both registered as state-owned, and as sub-national companies with foreign public and private companies.
[1] http://esp.sinohydro.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=lists&catid=282
