| 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. |
