The political economy of state enterprises in transitional China: resource nationalism and imagined continuities

Geoffrey C. Chen and Zhiting Chen

Chapter 13 in Handbook of Resource Nationalism, 2026, pp 199-215 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The chapter revisits China's trajectory of resource nationalism and explores its institutionalizations of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to control natural resources before and after the establishment of the Communist regime. It argues that the Chinese approach to resource sovereignty has not been built solely on a Communist ideal. Instead, the nationalist approach towards the rejection of economic liberalism reflected the continuity of institutional arrangements of giant SOEs that have been propagated and practised in both capitalist and socialist economic governance systems in China. State-controlled enterprises in various forms were constructed as a wartime imperative across the Nationalist regime and the Communist regime. This chapter contributes to our understanding of the diversity and repercussions of resource nationalism within the Chinese context. It examines how the state navigates to establish institutional continuity, aiming to regularize its drive to maintain stringent control over natural resources while simultaneously adopting elements of neoliberal market reform.

Keywords: State-Owned Enterprises; Resource Nationalism; Corporate Governance; Development; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035333431
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