Prior to the 1970's, much of the economic LANDSCAPE in China was dominated by State-Owned
Enterprises (SOE's) (Liu, 2003). However, reforms concerning the economy, labour relations,
ownership and other social systems in the late 1970s through to the 1980s opened the door to an
increase in foreign investment, which mainly occurred through the joint ventures with domestic
enterprises (Lewis, 2003). Since then, further reforms developed the opportunity for privately owned
enterprises, and wholly foreign owned enterprises to exist in China