China is increasingly clawing back profits from state companies to cover
some of the government’s spending needs, drawing on them more than
ever during a year that saw an almost unprecedented decline in budget
revenue.
The money sourced from state-owned enterprises, or SOEs, and moved to
the general public budget topped 574 billion yuan ($83 billion) in 2025, or
almost 12 times as much as a decade earlier. That amount far exceeded
what China earned from stamp duty
