At the turn of the millennium, after several years of frantic mergers and liquidations, the central bank conducted a survey to discover what had happened to the credit given to state enterprises, including the new national champions. The result showed that for every three yuan lent by the banks, the enterprises increased their output by two yuan. After a quarter of a century of reform, they simply destroyed one-third of the capital they received. State enterprises continued to account for almost half of gross domestic product in 2000, although their share of tax revenue tumbled from 12 to less
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