Professor Pei has followed the evolution of Chinese economic and political institutions from the 1990s, to document the emergence of crony capitalism. He pinpoints critical changes in the control of property rights of the assets owned by the state and changes to the relationship between Communist Party officials at all levels. He argues that the result of these changes have dramatically decentralised the control of public property without clarifying ownership and granted local party chiefs unprecedented personal power.

Professor Pei describes this level of corruption involving multiple officials and businessmen as crony capitalism which has evolved into a decentralised kleptocracy with it sown market rules and dynamics.