State-owned enterprises and China’s energy policy 2013-2021

People’s Republic of China is among the most important energy actors worldwide. Despite significant achievements in developing renewable energy sources from sun and wind, China’s energy mix is still dominated by coal, a non-renewable source. The study period for this article is between 2013, when Xi Jinping became the president, and the 2021 energy crisis - which occurred simultaneously with the COVID-19 pandemic - to which China responded by increasingly relying on coal for electricity production and thus avoiding blackouts. This article would like to focus on state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as key contributors to the energy five-year plans; at the same time, SOEs enjoy a semi-autonomous position when it comes to adhering to the energy transition targets. According to the research claim guiding this article, it is the SOEs engaged in electricity production from coal who are particularly strong opponents to a rapid coal phase-out and shorter deadlines for carbon neutrality. A more profound formalisation of their interests is, however, made difficult through the Communist Party of China cadre rotation system. As regards the theoretical framework of this article, the main approach will be the integrated fragmentation, a concept proposed by K. E. Brødsgaard in 2016. This article will obtain its data from semi-structured interviews with think-tank based researchers and practitioners. The data from the interviews will then be reinforced with desk research which will review the previously published books, research articles and policy papers in this topic.