Elites, bureaucracy and policy learning: A case study of facilities-based competition policymaking in China's telecommunications restructuring

This dissertation describes and explains the liberalization of the telecommunications sector in China, focusing on the events of new market entry since 1993 and the policy-making process around these events. The research takes a multi-case study design and is based on document research and extensive interviews with government officials, industry entrepreneurs and academics in China.; The issue of facilities-based competition originats from the “natural monopoly” and “public good” aspects associated with network infrastructure. The research found that the objective of China's telecommunications restructuring was to break up monopoly and bring in competition. The guiding principle had been “preventing redundant construction” of network infrastructure. Bureaucratic behavior greatly complicated the issue. Ministerial competition was the driving force for facilities-based carriers to enter market. Walking a fine line between achieving the objective and upholding the principle, the State Council took opportunities of the advent of new technology in wireless, satellite, Internet and broadband to allow new market entry.; The research confirms that “elites rationality” and “bureaucratic politics” theories are applicable in explaining various aspects of telecommunications policy-making in China. They are particularly strong in terms of revealing the power relationship, means and ends relationship and bureaucratic behaviors.; A major finding is a dynamic process of conceptual advances and cognitive development about competition among policymakers. Competition took place along with China's transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy and China's 16-year effort to join the WTO. Under this unprecedented socioeconomic condition, policy-making became a form of policy learning on society's behalf. Evidence suggests new attitudes and alteration of traditional ideas and beliefs among elites and bureaucracies. This active learning process substantially differs from the “indoctrination” of the masses for political movements that Western political scientists often observed in the past. More important, elites and bureaucracies initiated this policy-oriented learning process with enthusiasm and seriousness. In emphasizing this dynamic learning process, the dissertation makes a significant shift in thinking about policy-making in China.; Another fruitful finding is that a set of policy amateurs—the ISP entrepreneurs, academics and some print media—actively participated and played important roles in the telecommunications policy-making process.