The changing political economy of central state-owned oil companies in China

Chen, Zhiting; Chen, Geoffrey Chun-fung

doi:10.1080/09512748.2019.1679229

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Putterman and Dong (2000) and show that the composition of SOE investments is inordinately focused on electricity, oil and gas, steel and other metals, and transportation-related industries, among other investment-intensive industries. Finally, in addition to being a source of capital-heavy investment, SOEs are institutional tools for the central government's development plan (Chen and Chen 2019;Jones and Zou 2017). Hence, the focus of government officials on the promotion of capital-intensive SOEs is part of a series of economic forces that combine to reduce the share of GDP that is in the hands of consumers.…”

Section: Labor-intensive Service Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving Beyond Lewis: Employment and Wage Trends in China’s High- and Low-Skilled Industries and the Emergence of an Era of Polarization

et al. 2020

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One of the defining features of China’s economy over the two decades between 1995 and 2015 was the persistent rise of wages for workers and professionals in nearly every segment of the economy—with wage rates for labor-intensive jobs in manufacturing, construction, and the informal service sector rising the fastest. Recently, however, the economic environment in China has begun to change, including changes in both employment and wages. We identify recent employment/wage trends throughout China’s economy and postulate the sources of these trends as well as possible future consequences if they continue. We use official, nationally aggregated data to examine employment and wages in multiple sectors and industries. Our findings indicate that China may have entered a new phase of economic development in the mid-2010s. According to the data, in recent years, wage growth has begun to polarize: Rising for professionals employed in formal skill-intensive industries; and falling for workers in the informal labor-intensive service sector. We attribute this increase in skill-intensive wages to an increase in demand for skill-intensive employment, due to the emergence of a large middle class in China, for whom the demand for high technology, finance, banking, health, and higher education industries is increasing while, at least in the recent short term, the supply of experienced, high-skilled professionals has not kept up. The employment/wage trend in the informal (low-wage) service sector, however, is following a different pattern. While there is a rising demand for services in China’s economy, the growth, due to a number of factors (e.g., large shares of GDP targeted by policymakers to investment; high rates of savings by consumers), is relatively slow. In contrast, due to a number of economic forces, including globalization and automation, the supply of labor into the service sector of the informal economy is being fueled by the flow of labor out of manufacturing and construction (two industries that that have experienced employment declines since 2013). These supply and demand trends, in turn, are leading to the fall in the growth rate of wages in the informal service sector. We conclude by discussing the possible longer-term consequences of these emerging polarization trends based on an examination of recent experience with wage polarization occurring in both middle- and high-income countries, as well as its consequences. We also present policy recommendations for greater investment in education and human capital, as well as for the development of a more comprehensive set of social safety nets for different segments of China’s population.

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Section: Labor-intensive Service Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving Beyond Lewis: Employment and Wage Trends in China’s High- and Low-Skilled Industries and the Emergence of an Era of Polarization

et al. 2020

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“…In the span of about a decade, a new phrase emerged: 'the advance of the state, retreat of the private sector' (guojin mintiu). As China scholars documented, the advance of state activism is more conspicuous in some sectors than others, notably in energy and basic industries -oil and gas, mining, and technology to name a few -and this process itself was preceded by the recentralization of state institutions through the formation of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) (Chen and Chen 2019;Eaton 2016). 4 On the one hand, selective re-regulation across sectors occurred in the 2000s, whereby the 'strategic importance' of sectors determines whether central SOEs would play a leading role in the restructuring of the sector (Hsueh 2011).…”

Section: The Renewal Of Industrial Strategy Through China's Large Ent...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The centralized state had to contend with pressures from below to induce competition among regions despite creating monopoly sectors. Economic policies were also crafted in response to the changing external conditions especially upon China's entry into the WTO (Chen and Chen 2019;Eaton 2016). Like in other East Asian countries, the success of Chinese market reforms hinges on the capacity of elites to make pragmatic choices in response to the external environment.…”

Section: The Renewal Of Industrial Strategy Through China's Large Ent...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The renaissance of the developmental state in the age of post-neoliberalism

Singh¹

2022

Handbook on Governance and Development

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“…The latter company is a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based offshore operator CNOOC Limited, which is itself a daughter company of the SOE, China National Offshore Oil Corporation. The expansion abroad of Chinese national oil companies (CNOCs) has rapidly occurred since the Great Recession, as China's government sought to meet domestic demand and pursue policy efforts to create an internationally competitive oil industry (Chen & Chen 2019;Vermeer, 2015). The consortium-style partnership in Guyana is, therefore, a part of China's broader energy objectives being pursued across the global South.…”

Section: China's Parastatalism In Guyanamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CNOCs have demonstrated a high degree of adaptability over the past four decades. They have done so while meeting the concurrent demands of marketization tangentially with the policy objectives set by the central government as China's role continues to change internationally (Chen & Chen, 2019). This resilience is especially noteworthy amidst present day tensions between China and the United States.…”

Section: China's Parastatalism In Guyanamentioning

confidence: 99%

Situating Petrostate Guyana in the Rise of China Discourse

Cheong

2021

Potentia

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By examining the Sino-Guyanese relationship and China’s parastatal involvement in Guyana, this paper seeks to demonstrate that the former’s potential for upending conventional geopolitical realities in Latin America and the Caribbean are overstated. As Western public concern regarding the perils of a China to the international order grows, the case of Guyana draws attention to China’s still deepening integration within the neoliberal global economy. Guyana’s historic relationship with China, geostrategic location as a Belt and Road Initiative partner country, and the recent emergence of the Guyana Basin as an energy nexus, suggests its importance as a bellwether of China’s presence in the region. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, assumptions regarding China’s re-emergence in the global order are being overturned frequently. It remains unclear what impact contemporary socio-economic, political, or ecological instabilities will have on a realignment of the incumbent international system, the need for nuanced and novel approaches for assessing the agency of a risen China is unequivocal.

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The changing political economy of central state-owned oil companies in China

Cited by 9 publications

References 48 publications

Moving Beyond Lewis: Employment and Wage Trends in China’s High- and Low-Skilled Industries and the Emergence of an Era of Polarization

Moving Beyond Lewis: Employment and Wage Trends in China’s High- and Low-Skilled Industries and the Emergence of an Era of Polarization

The renaissance of the developmental state in the age of post-neoliberalism

Situating Petrostate Guyana in the Rise of China Discourse

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