Abstract:

Chinese private enterprises have entered the period of large-scale intergenerational inheritance. Many sons and daughters of private entrepreneurs have taken over their family business. Meanwhile, among some of the second-generation rich, whose parents revolved from the state, choose to return the public sector. Based on data from CPES 2016, this article examines this interesting but understudied phenomenon. Chinese business families have been undergoing a process of “interrupted bureaucratization”: (1) A parents’ work experience for the state not only significantly improved the possibility of their children’s employment in the same sector but also helped them attain higher professional status in the field. (2) The career-facilitating effect of parents’ experience was not homogeneous. Compared with the state-sector employment experience, parents’ cadre status had greater effect on their children’s careers. (3) The career-facilitating effect of the parents’ state-sector employment, a kind of endowed resource, was mediated by their children’s other resource endowments. For children with lower education levels, the influence of parents’ employment experience was stronger. As a result of the state-dominated political economy, the “interrupted bureaucratization” and its future development will have substantial impacts on the social reproduction of business elites, the extent of social closure, and the prospects for China’s private economy.

Key words: private entrepreneurs, second-generation rich, class reproduction, state-business relations, family succession