Moving Ahead in China: State-Owned Enterprises and Elite Circulation

The SOE (state-owned enterprise) sector provides an important avenue to political power in China. A number of SOE executives are members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and often they change career tracks to become leading government and Party officials. In the past, the oil and gas sector was a significant recruitment basis for government and Party leaders.However, in recent years, the aerospace sector has become more dominant. This is a result of the anti-corruption campaign which has, in particular, targeted the oil sector, and also reflects the emergence of new sectors and social groups due to changing political and socio-economic conditions of Chinese society. The oil and gas industry is an old industry associated with China’s heavy-industrial growth model of the past, whereas aerospace represents China’s technological future.