China’s announcement during last month’s ‘Two Sessions’ meetings of a new data ministry grabbed international headlines, but domestically another decision kicked up a stir: Beijing’s announcement of a 5 percent cut in the size of the central government's workforce.
Government ministries and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have long been the country’s biggest employers. In recent years, young Chinese have coveted government jobs, viewing them as more stable and less grueling than those in the private sector.
This week, The Wire looks at China’s largest employers: who they are, how they’ve changed, and how the largest state and privately-owned companies compare.
THE BIGGEST EMPLOYERS
Data: Company annual reports. ByteDance figure from reporting by The Information
Data on how many people China’s different SOEs employ isn’t always readily disclosed. But the financial statements of publicly listed subsidiaries provide a partial picture. The
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On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with Wang Wentao, the Chinese Commerce Minister, in Washington. It marked the first cabinet-level meeting in Washington between the U.S. and China during the Biden administration, and it was a signal of the Commerce Department’s increasingly central role in the current U.S.-China relationship. Usually, the Commerce Department is far from the center of anything, but as Katrina Northrop reports, the department is uniquely suited to address the China challenge.
The lawyer and author talks about the attack on a train in the 1920s which created an international incident, the rise of the Communist Party and the conditions for foreign media in China today.
