The Phantom Menace: The Rise of China’s State-owned Monopolies

Abstract

The first episode of the blockbuster movie Star Wars is called “The Phantom Menace” - titled so because of the chancellor of the galactic republic hiding his true identity as an evil villain behind the face of a devoted public servant. Maybe we are living in the world of another type of phantom menace. There is a group of giant firms with a little reputation outside China are quietly taking a dominant lead globally in some particular industries: energy and utilities. As we saw in the Huawei incident, the West’s attention is now all taken up by China’s ICT security threats. However, the real threat might lie in these China’s state-owned companies arising as the worldwide monopolies of the future.