Introduction – Managing China’s energy sector: between the market and the state

Introduction We will here attempt to place the theme of this Special Issue onManaging China’s Energy Sector in its historical and contemporary context, as well as its economic, political and social importance, not only in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the rest of Asia but also in the wider global economy. The Chinese economy has grown at a relentless rate, around 10% per annum, since the economic reforms were introduced by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 (see Warner 2014). As a result, it has become the number-two economic global superpower (see Aoki andWu2012).According to a recentWorldBank study,China could surpass theUSA to be the largest economy in the purchase power parity term in 2014 (Financial Times, 2014).