The "grasping the large and letting the small go" policy ( zh, c=抓大放小, p=Zhuā dà fàng xiǎo) was part of a wave of industrial

reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

s implemented by the

government of the People's Republic of China The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a Unitary state, unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's ...

in 1996. These reforms included efforts to corporatize

state-owned enterprises A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goo ...

(SOEs) and to downsize the

state sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

Concept

The slogan and strategy were popularized by

CCP general secretary The general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party ( zh, s=中国共产党中央委员会总书记, p=Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng Zhōngyāng Wěiyuánhuì Zǒngshūjì) is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party ...

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as Chairman of the Central Mil ...

and

Chinese premier The premier of China, officially the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, is the head of government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and leader of the State Council. This post was established in 1911 near the e ...

Zhu Rongji Zhu Rongji ( zh, s=朱镕基; IPA: ; born 23 October 1928) is a retired Chinese politician who served as the 5th premier of China from 1998 to 2003. He also served as member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP ...

in 1997. The "grasping the large and letting the small go" policy was adopted in September 1997 at the 15th Communist Party Congress. The "grasping the large" component indicated that

policy-maker Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an organi ...

s should focus on maintaining state control over the largest state-owned enterprises (which tended to be controlled by the central government). Through "grasping the large", the state focused on developing a core group of large SOEs in strategically important fields deemed as part of the

commanding heights of the economy In Marxian economics, the commanding heights of the economy are certain strategically important economic sectors. Some examples of industries considered to be part of the commanding heights include public utilities, natural resources, and sect ...

. "Letting the small go" meant that the central government should relinquish control over smaller and unprofitable SOEs. Relinquishing control over these enterprises took a variety of forms: giving

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

s authority to restructure the firms,

privatizing Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

them, or shutting them down.Barry Naughton, The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth (Cambridge, MA:

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

, 2007), 301-302. Many small or medium-sized SOEs were allowed to go bankrupt.

References

'Letting Go of the Small': An Analysis of the Privatisation of Rural Enterprises in Jiangsu and Shandong
Samuel P.S. Ho; Paul Bowles; Xiaoyuan Dong. Source: Journal of Development Studies, Volume 39, Number 4, April 1, 2003, pp. 1–26(26)

Muluan Wu. Source: Twenty-First Century, Volume 110,2008, pp. 24–35 {{Economy of China Economic history of the People's Republic of China Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party

Concept

See also

References