Accounting and the reduction of state-owned stock in China

In 2001, the Chinese government announced that it would reduce its ownership position in companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets. As state-owned shares had previously not been permitted to be traded, this announcement was a significant market event in China. The announcement stated that the shares would be sold at a market-determined price, rather than at the much lower “net assets” price that investors had naively anticipated. The difference between these prices was considerable for virtually all listed companies. We examine how accounting information was used discursively to frame the situation, constructing the “problem” of how to reduce state ownership and simultaneously restricting the set of permissible solutions. We distinguish the ex ante and ex post uses of accounting calculations and vocabularies in the public discourse during this event, and examine how the discursive function of accounting in China is conditioned by bureaucracy and ideology in Chinese society.