In 2021, a total of 141 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were included on the 2021 Fortune Global 500, among them 82 were Chinese. Chinese SOEs are a heritage of the planned economic system and their role in today's state capitalism is not clearly defined. Using a rich dataset of Chinese firms, we investigate the role played by SOEs in the Chinese industrial policy stated in the 10th five-year plan. We find that the Chinese government has relied heavily on SOEs to achieve the objective of the 10th FYP. We also find evidence for spillover effects from SOEs' productivity and the private sector's productivity within the targeted industry. These results provide evidence that SOEs are a ”tool” of economic state-craft (as it was during Mao's era) for the Chinese government to implement its industrial policies.