China has seen a surge in new business registrations over the past five years amid an official campaign to streamline its bureaucracy, with growth underlining an economic shift from heavy industry towards higher technology manufacturing and services.
About 6m enterprises — defined as companies with more than one owner — were registered in China last year, up from 2.5m in 2013, premier Li Keqiang announced in March following a campaign to cut the multiple government approvals entrepreneurs needed to found a business.
Companies with a single owner increased by 12m last year, up 20 per cent on the year before, according to official statistics. By contrast, 414,000 businesses formed in the US in 2015, the most recent year for which figures are available.