Many pundits and media believe that China under Mr. Xi Jinping is politically and economically illiberal with concentration of political power to Xi himself and the expansion of state capitalism. This article believes that China is still in transition and the Daobi (倒逼) mechanism, namely, a planned strategy of introducing foreign competition and international rules to advance domestic reform, takes effect. The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) is a milestone that could possibly contribute to structural economic and even political changes in China. This article centres on the Daobi mechanism and explains how the synergies among CAI, domestic socioeconomic changes and Chinese leaders’ self-consciousness may set the agenda of China’s domestic reform.
Though the reforms announced by the Chinese government in the spring of 1998 appear to be substantial and wide ranging, by themselves they may have little impact either on the effectiveness of government or on the performance of the state industries. Two outstanding problems are the structure and allocation of responsibilities within the government, and the excessive power of the state companies. The tasks of regulation and policy formulation in the energy sector should be clearly allocated in a simple administrative structure which specifically excludes any role for the state companies. The present structure of the state-owned energy industries is such that these companies have a great deal of power, not only in the market but also with respect to the government. 相似文献
