The DOI matches its Crossref record; 55 of the 55 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Rethinking the Role of State-owned Enterprises in China’s Rise
Abstract
The massive overseas expansion of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is a central aspect of China’s ‘rise’ to great-power status. There is significant disagreement, however, over how to interpret SOEs’ role. Are they instruments of Chinese statecraft, being directed purposefully from Beijing as part of a ‘grand strategy’? Or are they relatively autonomous, profit-maximising businesses, their free-wheeling behaviour often undermining Chinese foreign policy? Finding that there is evidence for both theses, we provide a framework to explain this. We propose theorising party-state/SOEs relations using the concepts of state transformation and regulatory statehood. We show that the Chinese state’s fragmentation, decentralisation and internationalisation since the late 1970s has substantially increased SOE autonomy and weakened but also transformed the executive’s control, reconfiguring it towards a regulatory mode of governance. Party-state/SOEs relations are thus characterised not by direct command and control but weak oversight and ongoing struggles within the party-state. We illustrate this using a case study of China Power Investment Corporation and its Myitsone hydropower dam project in Myanmar. Here, a central SOE clearly defied and subverted central regulations, profoundly damaging Sino-Myanmar state-to-state relations. Party-state authorities are now struggling to rein in this and other central SOEs.
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Tan, Y. (2025) · Competition & Change · doi:10.1177/10245294251323049 · Cited by 3
“…the Myitsone hydropower plant is most often cited as an example of Chinese SOEs failing abroad; scholars also argue that the project violates several regulations and re fl ects the broken top-down project supervision system of the central government in China ’ s outward FDI (Jones and Zou 2017).”
Rural resistance under a golden dictatorship, part 1: the Myitsone villages
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“…explore the Myitsone project ’ s 2011 suspension as a prominent setback among Beijing ’ s growing outward development-investments in Asia and beyond (Chan 2017; Freeman 2017; Jones and Hameiri 2021; Jones and Zou 2017; Kiik 2016, 2024; Transnational Institute 2016; Xue 2017; Zou and Jones 2020).”
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“I have done ethnographic research among Kachin people since 2010, focusing on ethnonational and environmental struggles, and have lived in Kachin areas altogether for about three years.”
Hou, J. Z. (2019) · Communication Research and Practice · doi:10.1080/22041451.2019.1561396 · Cited by 2
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“The observed preferential treatment is, to some extent, associated with China’s industrial policies that encourage SOE takeovers (Jones and Zou 2017; Szamosszegi and Kyle 2011), and therefore CONTACT Renwei Xue 3077@ecupl.edu.cn International Faculty of Law and Finance, East China University of…”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Jones, L., & Zou, Y.
- Affiliations
- Queen Mary University of London (GB)
- Shenzhen University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Zou, Yizheng
- Venue
- New Political Economy
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2017-05-03
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 743-760
- ISSN
- 1356-3467 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-9923
- OpenAlex
- W2610527125
- Cited by
- 195
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 46 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 47.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- New Political Economy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Queen Mary Research Online (Queen Mary University of London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Shenzhen University (16QNFC18)
- China National Social Science Fund (15@ZH009)
- Australian Research Council (DP1701102647)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › International Business and FDI
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › State Capitalism and Financial Governance
- Keywords
- state-owned enterprises, China's rise, party-state governance, state transformation, Sino-Myanmar relations, great power status, Chinese foreign policy
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