Railway Sector Reform in China: controversy and problems.

The railway sector in China has undergone several major rounds of reform and institutional restructuring since 1986. These reform initiatives have largely been unsuccessful due to strong resistance from vested interest groups. The development of China's railway sector has raised some challenging issues that include the centralization of power in the Ministry of Railways (MOR), state monopoly control, rampant corruption and the accumulation of a huge debt burden. The 2013 railway reform initiatives have provided very little in the way of concrete measures to deal with these thorny issues but have instead created more controversy and problems in an already crisis-ridden sector. For the railway industry, the transformation from the mixed-function MOR to a monopolistic China Railway Corporation (CRC) will not necessarily lead to better railway management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]