China’s High-Speed Railway Industry and Applicability of the Anti-Monopoly Law

5月 19, 2017

Yu Li , Xu Zhiwei and Xu Honghai

Center for Economic Analysis of Law and Policy Evaluation, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China

Abstract: China’s high-speed railway industry achieved dazzling development over

the years, but not much research has been devoted to this industry from the perspective of

competition policy. This paper focuses on the industrial organization of China’s high-speed

railway industry and the applicability of the Anti-Monopoly Law. We intend to answer the

following questions: (1) Why is the high-speed railway industry not an industry of natural

monopoly? Which segments of the industry have elements of natural monopoly? (2) At

the level of corporate organization, what is the legal and economic rationale behind the

patterns of China’s high-speed railway undertakings evolving from government-afﬁliated

enterprises to special legal person enterprises and then shareholding companies? (3) The

applicability of the Anti-Monopoly Law to the high-speed railway industry. Our conclusions

from the perspective of competition policy are worth referencing for similar industries such

as electric power, telecommunications, and water and gas supply.

Keywords: high-speed railway industry, industrial organization, special legal person

enterprise, applicability of the Anti-Monopoly Law

JEL Classiﬁcation Codes: K21, K23, L44, L92