In recent years a growing number of real-sector firms have moved into lending and financial investment through channels such as entrusted loans

entrusted wealth management and informal lending

and the shadow-banking activity of non-financial firms has gradually become a focus for researchers and regulators alike. Using data on non-financial A-share companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen between 2007 and 2024

we build four shadow-banking measures from entrusted loans

entrusted wealth management

informal lending and quasi-financial assets. After dropping financial firms

ST/PT-flagged companies and delisted firms

we are left with 5

018 firms and 51

160 firm-year observations

on which we systematically examine the aggregate trend

distributional shape

industry and regional structure

and determinants of shadow banking among China's non-financial firms. Three findings stand out. The scale of corporate shadow banking held steady early in the sample

climbed rapidly thereafter

and moved into a high but volatile range around 2018

with the activity concentrated in a small group of heavily involved firms. Intensity varies markedly across industries (it is comparatively high in information technology

scientific research and manufacturing) and falls along a clear east-to-west gradient. Larger firms hold a greater stock of shadow-banking assets

with an elasticity close to 0.94; yet once standardised by total assets

relative intensity declines with size

and intensity is higher among non-state firms and firms that have been listed for a shorter time. These conclusions hold under a range of settings

namely alternative samples

alternative dependent variables

modified fixed-effects structures and split-period regressions

so the findings generalise well.