Private Entrepreneurs in China: Social Entrepreneurs or Social Menaces?

Abstract

Many think that private entrepreneurs are capable of creating partnerships with central and local government, business, churches, charities and other local and national institutions. There is a considerable amount of research about how private entrepreneurs make different social contributions whereas scholars and politicians define them as social entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, this paper argues that private entrepreneurs in China have been traditionally discriminated and continue to be regarded as social menaces in the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s regime though they really acted as social entrepreneurs for a short time during modern China. Chinese leadership, from the founding of the PRC to the reforms and opening-up, has seen private entrepreneurs as social menaces - a threat to the authority rather than social entrepreneurs - a dedication to changing the systems and patterns of society.