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By focusing directly on Chinese construction-based state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Ghana, this paper illustrates that the relationship with the Chinese state is not the main factor that distinguishes SOEs’ business behavior and development. The best-performing SOEs—in terms of business development and socially responsible behavior—are not the largest SOEs in China, but provincial SOEs or less strategic central SOE groups. The level of autonomy becomes a significant factor only when it is correlated with time, as adaptation to the local context takes time for all kinds of enterprises, a fact that has been largely ignored in the analysis of China-Africa relations. Over time, the SOEs in Ghana have become highly independent and gradually local enterprises, headed by their entrepreneurial subsidiary directors.