Abstract: In China, the birth of the rural credit cooperatives is supported by governments. To obtain the interests which could not be gained beyond the system of the credit cooperatives, the governments supplied the credit cooperatives with the system, invested the cooperatives with their creditworthiness and organizational cost and became the investors of the cooperatives. After supplying the credit cooperatives with the system, the governments have succeeded in controlling the credit cooperatives. This success lies in the huge cost for the members to retreat from the cooperatives. The governmental property right in the cooperatives has deep impacts on the evolution of the system of the credit cooperatives.

Key words: rural credit cooperatives; government creditworthiness; institutional evolution