Reforms in China’s telecommunications sector are being driven by a number of factors. They are part of the general reform of state enterprise currently taking place. They are part of the national priority to modernize China’s economy and develop new technologies, especially information technologies. They are part of a struggle between the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and other ministries over who can and should provide public telecommunications facilities and services. They are part of China’s centrifugal tendency to spin-off autonomy to the provinces against Beijing’s attempts to centralize authority. And overlaying all these are the politics of personalities, factions, and networks of interests.
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