["The World Economy, EarlyView. ", "\nABSTRACT\nChinese state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) serve as critical institutional anchors in supply chains. Utilising panel data from 1076 Chinese A‐share listed firms during the period of 2008–2016, this study examines the impact of SOEs on global value chain (GVC) participation of their suppliers. The empirical results from difference‐in‐differences method demonstrate that SOEs significantly enhance their suppliers' GVC participation. Mechanism tests reveal that SOEs boost their suppliers' GVC participation through operational enhancements, supply chain efficiency and FDI attraction improvements. In addition, this study identifies that resource misallocation and coordination costs negatively moderate the effect of SOEs on their suppliers' GVC participation. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that the positive effects of SOEs are stronger for large suppliers and those suppliers without micro and small enterprises (MSEs) as major customers. Notably, SOEs enhance the intensive‐margin of GVCs but have a negligible effect on the extensive‐margin. These findings position SOEs as catalysts for GVC participation, offering policy insights for other economies with SOEs.\n"]