Here's an interesting article from 2004:

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 26, 2004
China has more than 70,000 private schools

Though the state-funded public schools dominate, China now has more than 70,000 private schools ranging from preliminary to higher education attended by over 14 million students, China Daily reported Friday.

Encouraging the development of private schools will be necessary to meet the country's growing educational demands, Minister of Education Zhou Ji was quoted by the paper as saying Thursday at a news conference in Beijing.

The Law of Promoting Non-state Educational Institutions went into effect on September 1 last year and a new regulation will kick off on April 1 this year, the paper said.

"Both the law and the regulation are designed to better guide private schools towards a legal and healthy tracks so as to provide people with qualified educational resources," Zhou said.

In 1997, the State Council promulgated an administrative regulation outlining how schools should be run and private schools began to operate legally.

Now, private and public schools should be put on an equal footing, said Shi Min, an official of the State Council Legislative Affairs Office.

For example, students who study in private schools will enjoy the same rights, such as employment, social welfare and competition for academic awards as those who study in public schools, she explained.

Regional governments should give preferential policies to private schools that want to use land to build schools, the regulation says.

In short, private schools should not be discriminated against by the public and governmental institutions, said Shi.

However, any private school that runs counter to the law or regulation, or provides substandard education to people, will be suspended or even shut down, she said.

Source: Xinhua