As China’s ruling Communist Party prepares for a once-in-a-decade leadership transition next month, it is planning a daunting step – breaking up the monopolies enjoyed by its gargantuan state-owned enterprises.
The monopolists have other ideas. One of the most powerful of all Chinese state-owned giants is the power-grid operator, State Grid Corp, led by the politically savvy engineer Liu Zhenya. This summer, with blackouts paralyzing neighbor India, he seized an opportunity. Liu called his managers together for an urgent conference in Beijing to explore what lessons the world’s biggest utility could learn from the Indian crisis. His conclusion: Beijing should preserve State Grid’s monopoly over the transmission and distribution of power to 1.1 billion people across 90 percent of China.
looking beyond borders 