As a partial result of Mainland China's current economic reform town-level collective enterprises have undergone rapid expansion since mid-1980s; a large number of them have been put to contract for more efficient management. The profits generated by these enterprises are subject to division between the contractors and the mainland central government, the township governments, the enterprises, and the workers. the contractors of all the enterprises under study that produced a profit were found to employ deviant strategies to maximize their shares at the cost of the state. However, with the support of township governments, their deviant practice could be semi-institutionalized. A rational choice model is used to identify the structural and agentic cnditions which operated to bring about the emergence of this deviant behavior pattern during a period of radical society-wise economic transition.