Power sector reform in China: economic logic and political reasoning

Xu Yi-chong

Chapter Chapter 20 in Handbook on Electricity Regulation, 2025, pp 449-472 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The electricity industry in China was among the first sectors that started the reform in the early 1980s, aiming ‘to separate government and enterprise functions’ - an objective that remains elusive four decades later. This chapter examines the politics behind each round of proposed reform and shows that (a) power sector reform is always at the intersection of multiple policy priorities while ensuring universal access to reliable and affordable electricity has always trumped over the reforms, whether on ownership, structure, and regulation; (b) competing interests, jurisdictions, and local concerns have all to be accommodated - a requirement that often thwarts reforms; and (c) the insistence on the coexistence of the state and markets has guaranteed that China is not ‘converting to a market economy of the type familiar to most of us.’

Keywords: Power sector reform; Political economy; Public policy process; Regulatory changes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035314348
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035314355.00027 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22433_20

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().