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Abstract
China's coal industry has been plagued by fragmentation among thousands of producers, low productivity, environmental damage, and high accident rates. Coal-industry reforms have sought a “strategic westward movement” through which to achieve resource consolidation under larger firms and upgraded production in northern and western China. This article examines Ordos Municipality and Yulin Municipality to assess the role of differently scaled political and economic processes that have driven a regional coal boom. It finds that the regional coal boom in north-central China discloses persistent difficulties in controlling producers and modernizing the sector.
中国的煤矿产业，受到成千上万的破碎化生产者、低度生产力、环境危害，以及高事故率所困扰。煤矿产业再造，试图藉由 “策略性西移”，在中国北部与西部，将资源统一至较大型的公司之下，并改进生产。本文检视鄂尔多斯市和榆林市，评估驱动区域煤矿繁荣发展的不同尺度之政治与经济过程所扮演的角色。本文发现，中国中北部的区域煤矿繁荣发展，揭露了控制生产者和现代化该部门时，持续存在的困难。
La industria del carbón de China ha estado plagada de fragmentación entre miles de productores, baja productividad, daño ambiental y altas tasas de accidentalidad. Las reformas en esta actividad económica han buscado un “estratégico movimiento hacia el oeste” por medio del cual lograr la consolidación del recurso en el norte y oeste de China bajo firmas más grandes y producción actualizada. Este artículo examina las Municipalidades de Ordos y Yulin para evaluar el papel de procesos políticos y económicos que, a escala diferente, han jalonado un boom regional del carbón. Se descubre que el boom regional del carbón en la parte norte-central de China revela persistentes dificultades en el control de los productores y la modernización del sector.
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Acknowledgments
Hui Kong provided valuable research assistance. Comments from anonymous reviewers on early drafts of the article were immensely helpful. All remaining errors are mine alone.
Funding
The author would like to recognize the University of California Berkeley Graduate Division, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and the Association for Asian Studies for generous support at different stages of research for this article.
Notes
1 National output statistics have been twice revised upward, once in 2006 and again in Citation2010, to adjust for rampant misreporting between 1998 and 2000. For national output data, this study uses the Citation2010 revised numbers to report output in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2008, and 2009 through Citation2012. For 2001 through 2004, national output data are derived from statistical yearbooks relevant to each year. For 2013, national output data are based on data published by the CCI. There have been no publicly available systematic revisions of subnational data. Province-level data cited in this study are derived from annual provincial statistical reports and yearbooks.
2 Following Chinese convention, this study uses metric tons.
3 Reported numbers for China's proven reserves show large variation. See Tu (Citation2011, 8). The number provided represents the measurement published in Huang Citation(2008) and is the same as in IEA Citation(2013). British Petroleum reports that proven reserves in China are 114.5 Gt (see BP Citation2014, 30). Prognostic reserves represent reserves based on modeling and inferring.
4 This calculation is based on coal equivalent across the spectrum of energy sources.
5 For global coal production statistics, see International Energy Agency (Citation2014, 14–15).
6 In Chinese official reporting, mines are typically categorized according to the level in the administrative hierarchy at which ownership over the mine is registered. For clarity, I use the terms township- and village-owned mines (TVMs) and state-owned mines (SOMs) and specify differences with private mines and “priority state-owned mines” where appropriate.
7 In interviews with local officials and mine operators in Ordos and Yulin, Shenhua is widely regarded as interloping on local affairs and lands. Its facilities are located within walled compounds over which local governments do not maintain jurisdiction.
8 A banner is a county-level territorial unit in China's Mongolian ethnic autonomous regions.
9 Interview, Ordos, June 2014.
10 Interview, Ordos, November Citation2011.
11 Artisanal mines could be seen at multiple sites during fieldwork in Jungar Banner, Ejenhoroo Banner, and Dongsheng District, where coal is most abundant and near the surface.
12 This categorization is based on Chinese statistical yearbooks that distinguish guoyou meikuang (priority state-owned mines) and difang meikuang (local state-owned mines). In this calculation, the latter category includes mines owned by provincial, municipal, and submunicipal governments, TVMs, and private mines.
13 Interview, Ordos, September Citation2011; interview, Yulin, October Citation2011; interviews, Ordos, July Citation2012 and June 2014.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Max D. Woodworth
MAX D. WOODWORTH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail: [email protected]. His research focuses on urban political economy in China's resource extraction regions.