Chapter 9: China’s Development of Wind and Solar Power By Loren Brandt and Luhang Wang Above all, sectors in which firms are most open to competition and foreign participation and enjoy freedom over sourcing decisions and technology, and customers have choices in the market, have been the most successful in developing and upgrading their capabilities in line with China’s evolving comparative advantage. China’s solar sector was extremely successful under these terms over a significant portion of the period we examine- expanding market penetration in advanced countries, increasing the role of local sourcing, and narrowing the gap with firms from advanced countries in the use of more mature te
Chapter 8: Growth, Upgrading, and Excess Cost in China’s Electric Power Sector By Thomas G. Rawski This chapter reviews the recent trajectory of China’s power sector, which has delivered an impressive combination of growth, technological upgrading, network expansion, and improved reliability during the past several decades. These advances come at high cost. Chinese and US electricity prices are similar; Chinese power providers enjoy multiple cost advantages over US electric utilities, but achieve consistently weaker financial results. This combination of prices and financial outcomes implies that the average cost of producing and delivering each unit of electricity is higher in China than i
Chapter 7: Growth, Upgrading, and Limited Catch-Up in China’s Semiconductor Industry by Douglas B. Fuller The rapid evolution of cutting-edge product characteristics and manufacturing processes typical of global semiconductor leaders means that large-scale investment and substantial upgrading in follower countries may fail to reduce the gap separating domestic producers from global leaders. This summarizes Chinese experience. MNCs have built production facilities in China, but generally refrained from committing to cutting- edge production and research operations, partly through concerns about protection of intellectual property (IP). Despite massive expansion and strong government backin