Unpacking China Inc in new energy supply chains
China has developed a leading presence in new energy supply chains: from mining the ores and metals through their refining and processing all the way down to component manufacturing, Chinese companies are now global leaders. Many of them have benefitted from state subsidies and both central- and local government support, even though many of them are not state-owned companies. The path to China’s current market concentration was not necessarily foreseen and holistically designed by the central government: While there has been a myriad of industrial policies in support of clean energy manufacturing and innovation, they have often been designed with specific technologies or sectors in mind, and have co-existed with innovation plans, outbound investment strategies and domestic efforts to develop resources. Together, they align to a strong market concentration, but behind it there are a variety of actors and interest groups that at times collaborate but at times also come into conflict. This paper looks to unpack the notion of “China Inc” a unitary actor from the Party-State down to the corporate level in new energy supply chains by identifying the key stakeholders and their evolution over the years.
