Take housing reform. To spur the movement toward private ownership, authorities in the western city of Nanjing banned local enterprises from renting new apartments to their employees. Instead, they must sell them to workers. In Shanghai, the city has already idled 230,000 workers in its effort to consolidate its bloated textile sector. So far, the city has sent 150,000 of these workers to training centers to study computers, accounting, and other new skills.
Shanghai also is at the forefront of mergers.
But that is only a small start given what needs to be done. Numerous industries are overcrowded with rivals, few of them big enough to compete efficiently. There are 189 motorcycle factories, and so many televisions were being churned out that Beijing has banned new plants. It also plans to modernize its stock and bond markets so that companies can depend less on banks for financing. For China, which still officially clings to Marxism as a guiding principle, the implications of Jiang's message are huge.