To date, few observations have been made about the performance improvement that resulted from the property right transformation of the collective-owned township and village enterprises (TVE) in the middle of 1990s. Using data collected from a questionnaire survey on the privatized TVE and their employees, the present paper provides some empirical evidence about this topic, and the analysis suggests that property right transformation has had a positive impact on sample enterprises’ performance, including business improvement, employment expansion, incremental investment and contributions to government revenues. The present study concludes that, from a transient viewpoint, the property right transformation has not distorted local governments’ intentions to establish TVE in earlier years. To date, few observations have been made about the performance improvement that resulted from the property right transformation of the collective-owned township and village enterprises (TVE) in the middle of 1990s. Using data collected from a questionnaire survey on the privatized TVE and their employees, the present paper provides some empirical evidence about this topic, and the analysis suggests that property right transformation has had a positive impact on sample enterprises’ performance, including business improvement, employment expansion, incremental investment and contributions to government revenues. concludes that, from a transient viewpoint, the property right transformation has not distorted local governments’ intentions to establish TVE in earlier years.