The rise and fall of China’s TVE coalmines

The ‘economic miracle’ of township and village owned enterprises (TVEs) in China has
led to claims that China’s success has depended on the flourishing of TVEs and also that they are expected to be the major source of growth in China’s future development. Since
the late 1990s, however, the Chinese government has implemented an extensive TVE closure policy. This paper, based on case studies on China’s coal industry, explores
underlying forces that have driven both the rise and the fall of TVE coalmines. The
earlier rise of TVE coalmines was forced upon the nation to accommodate her crying
need for economic development. The subsequent fall, however, became inevitable when China was forced to confront the further challenges of transition and globalisation. The
struggle between pro- and anti- closure of TVE coalmines reflects the enormous
difficulty for China to cope with the tangled challenges from development, transition and
globalisation.