This paper contributes to the finance literature by reviewing some current issues in
ownership structure and corporate governance structure in China. Since the notion of
corporate governance was introduced in policy thinking in China towards the end of
1980s, the authorities have adopted a top-down, legalistic approach to the development
of corporate governance, based primarily on transplanting stylized features of the Anglo-American corporate governance system. However, the forcible institutional
arrangement of the government and previous central planning economy has resulted in
dominant state-shareholders and concentrated ownership of listed companies. Such
features of ownership structure cause incompleteness and ineffectiveness of corporate
governance in China.