Opening the Door to Accounting Change: Transformations in Chinese Public Sector Accounting

Abstract

Accounting in China in the last 30 years has changed deeply, in connection with one of the most astonishing process of economic development in the world. Most researchers focus their attention to business accounting, with attention to further needs for change in the future. This article takes a different perspective. First we are interested in public sector accounting: though the State is reducing its sphere of activity, some part of “public service” will persist. How (public sector) accounting is involved in the process of modernization of the State bureaucracy is our main research focus. Second, more than investigating future possible changes, this paper takes a historical viewpoint: we try to understand and make sense of the changes in accounting regulation for public sector as it occurred in the last decades. Identifying various streams of regulation and waves of documents over time, we will identify four main phases of continuity and change in which the post Open Door period can be structured: restoration, revision, innovation and maintenance.

Keywords: Accounting history, public sector accounting, Chinese accounting reforms, Open Door policy

JEL Classification: D73, M4, N45, P41