Central-owned enterprises are enterprises managed by the central government.

Central-owned enterprises are the abbreviation of "centrally managed enterprises", which refer to enterprises that are performed by the Central People's Government (State Council) or the entrusted state-owned assets supervision and administration agency as investors, and the leadership team is directly managed by the central government or entrusted to the Central Organization Department , wholly state-owned or state-controlled enterprises managed by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council or other central ministries and commissions (associations).

According to the division of state-owned assets management authority, state-owned enterprises are divided into central enterprises (state-owned enterprises supervised and managed by the central government) and local enterprises (state-owned enterprises supervised and managed by local governments). Central enterprises occupy dominant positions in major industries and key fields related to national security and the lifeline of the national economy, and are an important pillar of the national economy.

Historical evolution:

In the mid-1990s, the performance of state-owned enterprises was bleak, and more than two-thirds of state-owned enterprises were in a state of loss. The reform of state-owned enterprises was "the hardest nut to crack" for the government at that time. Beginning in 1997, in order to achieve three-year relief for state-owned enterprises, the state not only required reforms in the field of state-owned enterprises themselves, but also introduced a number of supporting measures to strip away the burden on state-owned enterprises.

In order to save state-owned enterprises, including state capital injection, financing from international and domestic capital markets, debt-for-equity swaps, central reserves, and subsidized loans, the country spent more than 2 trillion yuan - which was simply a huge amount at the time. An astronomical figure.