Rethinking State-Market Relations in China and Beyond

Across major economies, the relationship between state and market is changing dramatically. The global growth of state ownership, proliferation of industrial policy, and fusion of public-private boundaries challenge conventional assumptions about market-led development. Deepening government involvement in trade, industry, technology, and finance demands a systematic rethinking of state-market relations.

China stands at the center of these transformations. As the world’s second-largest economy and largest trading nation, China’s evolving governance practices both influence and illuminate broader shifts in the global political economy. Ongoing "mixed ownership reforms" have expanded state investment to such a degree that boundaries between state, Party, and market actors are increasingly difficult to identify. Domestic developments in China, such as promotion of “mixed ownership” and technology-focused industrial policy, affect global markets and shape how governments elsewhere redesign their own economic playbooks.

This workshop takes China as both a critical empirical case and an analytical lens for examining global capitalist reconfigurations. By convening leading scholars across political science, law, economics, sociology, and geography, the workshop aims to develop cross-disciplinary frameworks for understanding the drivers, mechanisms, and international implications of state-market transformation in China and beyond.