State capacity, economic statecraft, and markets: Northeast Asian states’ rise (and fall) as global coal capital powers

Abstract

As clean energy policy becomes a pressing need in the wake of the looming climate crisis, the world—especially developing Asia—has witnessed a conflicting trend throughout the 2010s, that is, the boom of coal-fired power development. This article argues that the geoeconomic significance, driven by not only China’s but also Japan and South Korea’s pursuit of national interests, intensified a competition among them in supporting overseas coal fired power financing and has contributed to this phenomenon. Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data, it illustrates that while coal power financing becomes a conduit for these three ‘developmental states’ to forge comprehensive relations with countries they deem strategically important, the effectiveness of using this conduit is contingent, and constrained by exogenous factors, particularly dynamics of global energy markets.

Keywords:

• Developmental state
• economic statecraft
• energy politics
• export credit agencies
• strategic partnerships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Whether China’s growth experience should be considered as a developmental state model remains a debatable topic, which is discussed in more detail the analytical framework section.

2 Ministry of Foreign Economy and Trade, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Planning Commission, National

Commission of Economy and trade, Ministry of Finance, and People’s Bank of China, “关于大力发展对外承包工

程的意见” (Guanyu dali fazhan duiwai chengbao gongcheng de yijian, Opinions for Greatly Promoting the

Development of International Contracting), 17 March 2000. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2010-

12/30/content_4599.htm (accessed on 2 December 2020).

3 The report states that the top four financiers are China (32%), Japan (28%), Germany (12%) and Korea (9%).

4 IEEFA: China, Japan and South Korea stand to gain most from increased scrap steel recycling, December 17, 2021, https://ieefa.org/ieefa-china-japan-and-south-korea-stand-to-gain-most-from-increased-scrap-steel-recycling/