Much like stinky tofu, luosifen is an acquired taste. River snails, after lengthy boiling, give off a fishy aroma. Other fans of the dish say its unique flavor stems from the preserved bamboo shoots in the noodles.
The snack’s newfound popularity has led many a luosifen manufacturer, mainly private companies from Guangxi, to get more creative with their pungent product in a bid to guarantee the specialty’s popularity will endure. They have created spin-offs like luosifen-flavored ice cream or mooncakes, a signature Mid-Autumn Festival dessert. They have also come up with other initiatives, such as adopting more environmentally friendly packaging and bilingual packaging for the budding global market.
Luosifen firms are a prime example of private companies invigorating the Chinese market. A nurturing policy environment has fueled their remarkable growth in the past decade, with their total number surging from 10.86 million in 2012 to 44.58 million in 2021, to account for 92.1 percent of enterprises nationwide today.
According to this year’s government work report, China will continue to implement policies and measures that support the development of the private sector, as well as guide private enterprises in their overall reform and transformation.
“We will foster a cordial and clean relationship between government and business. To promote the entrepreneurial spirit, we will seek the opinions of market entities when designing enterprise-related policies, respect market rules and regulations, and help entrepreneurs devote themselves to creating startups and pursuing innovation,” the document stated.
Little giants
China’s private enterprises have provided roughly 80 percent of urban jobs, absorbed more than 70 percent of rural migrant labor, and created 90 percent of new jobs, according to data recently released by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC).
Ensuring employment aside, private firms are also leaders in technological innovation. Between 2018 and 2020, the country’s proportion of private hi-tech companies increased from 92.1 percent to 92.4 percent of all hi-tech companies.
Many private companies are relatively small in scale, and the government has been giving them a gentle push into expansion. About 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will receive additional support this year to improve industrial chain resilience and economic vitality.
Nicknamed “little giants,” these companies focus on key technologies in their specific market niche. “They are the foundation. If they are weak, it will impact the operation of larger companies. Their further enhancement guarantees the stability of the industrial chain—even that of the economy by large,” Xu Xiaolan, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said.
The move is part of China’s broader plans to promote high-quality SME development, which is vital to balanced growth and the creation of more jobs.
The country has also been upgrading financial services to private companies. Loans to private businesses in China expanded in 2021. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said it will continue to urge banking and insurance institutions to bolster financial services, with measures to extend credit to private firms in fair, precise and effective manner.
Provision and protection
As the pandemic has created market uncertainties, and the price of raw materials has seen a sharp rise, small, medium-sized and micro enterprises, with a high proportion of private enterprises, encounter difficulties such as growing operating costs, among others.
“Compared with state-owned enterprises, private ones find themselves in a relatively weak position; small, medium-sized and micro enterprises, in particular, are confronted with challenges. We need more support and protection,” Yi Jie, Chair of a private hi-tech company in Guangxi and a national lawmaker, told Beijing Review.
Back in 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping encouraged private firms to explore and find new ways to overcome hardships amid changes unseen in a century.
“After a rough start, China’s private firms today are thriving,” Xi said. “It is laudable that they have developed to today’s scale and made so many contributions [to national growth].” China subsequently introduced extensive tax and fee cuts to help relieve COVID-19-related pressures on market entities, with roughly 70 percent of benefits flowing into private companies.
The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, a comprehensive blueprint for the country’s overall development, also lists pledges for a better growth environment and high-quality expansion for private firms.
Measures including bigger tax and fee cuts and transfer payments will appear across key fields, including transportation infrastructure, energy, agriculture and water conservancy, to offset fiscal revenue losses from tax refunds.
Additional policies will target any monopolistic behavior that excludes or limits the participation of SMEs in fair market competition, crack down on unfair competition practices and steer financial institutions toward unceased support for SMEs.
Social responsibilities
Baixiang Food Group is yet another private company having recently gained popularity for its high-quality products and strong sense of social participation.
This instant noodle maker based in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, went viral as the company gained widespread consumer applause for its reliable product quality.
On March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, the media exposed a range of compromised food safety practices among a bevy of instant noodle makers. Baixiang quickly took to Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, and posted a message assuring consumers they could eat its noodles “with confidence.”
Many consumers then indeed turned to Baixiang noodles, creating a remarkable surge in demand as evidenced in the company’s out-of-stock announcement soon after the story broke.
The company’s reputation took further flight as it was reported that one third of Baixiang employees were people with disabilities. Examples of companies gaining market recognition from their decision to shoulder social responsibility are nothing new. During the devastating Zhengzhou floods in late July 2021, low-profile Chinese sportswear label Erke donated 50 million yuan ($7.8 million) worth of supplies. In August that year, an eatery in Zhengzhou donated 3 million portions of its specialty, braised carp, to people working in epidemic prevention and control across the city following the floods.
According to a report on the social responsibility of China’s private enterprises released by the ACFIC, these businesses have played a notable part in socially responsible undertakings like adopting energy-saving and other sustainable practices, providing material and financial support to underprivileged villages and making donations to pandemic-stricken regions.
