Chapter Two identifies the current legal and regulatory arrangements related to China’s electricity sector by examining the institutions and governing authority, pricing and tariff regulations, and investment approval. These regulatory aspects often determine the market features and characteristics of an electricity system. This chapter provides the foundation for understanding the design of critical supporting mechanisms adopted by the Renewable Energy Law and their implementation, which are discussed in the subsequent chapter.

Chapter Ten provides an overall evaluation of China’s energy law and regulation and its effectiveness in achieving the carbon neutrality goal. The analysis of the book indicates that China’s energy laws and regulations have significantly evolved due to the energy market reform and the government’s policy emphasis on low-carbon development. The evolving energy law and regulation have created legal obligations towards energy decarbonisation from different sources of law and regulation, which can be interpreted and applied effectively. However, despite the progress made, the book’s analysis highlights several shortcomings of China’s current energy laws and regulations in facilitating the energy transition and achieving carbon neutrality. To address these challenges, Chapter Ten suggests areas for further legal development and research.

Korea existed as an independent country longer than most countries in the world, within the great tradition of East Asia. However, Korea fell behind Europe with the "great divergence" in the modern era, evolving into a state most remote from Europe’s warfare states. The country also lagged behind neighboring China and Japan economically and socially, and the elites did not carry out reform from above in time. Korea thereby failed to adapt to the tectonic changes of the international environment in the nineteenth century and became a colony of Japan. The Japanese colonial rule transformed the Korean economy with a strong state capacity, enabling the Koreans’ per capita GDP as well as their total GDP to increase. However, the living standard stagnated, suggesting that landlords benefited disproportionately from the growth. The growth was eventually unsustainable because of the war. The colonial rule left a negative as well as a positive legacy for the country’s future.

Chapter Seven focuses on China’s domestic policy imperatives and regulatory/policy support to enhance its dominance in the lithium supply chain. It examines incentive regimes designed to support EVs and the policy transition from government-led to market-oriented approaches. Given the increasing demand for EV power batteries and the supply shortage for lithium resources and products, this chapter critically analyses whether and to what extent China can achieve greater lithium supply chain sustainability. It highlights the need for sustainable material consumption through harmonised circularity standards and indicators such as recyclability, efficiency, environmental protection, carbon footprint, corporate due diligence, and accountability.

South Korea is facing a tectonic change of international environment. The original advanced countries are undergoing a stagnation never seen after 1945, while the growth of China and other developing countries is offsetting it globally. South Korea benefited much from the rise of the Chinese economy, the most remarkable benefit being the trade surplus; however, it is disappearing with China’s catch-up in technological capability. The rise of China poses a challenge to the US hegemony, undermining the rule-based order and making East Asia the arena of a hegemony contest, which is most threatening to countries like South Korea. The country needs the ability to manage relationships with the great powers to cope with it, but whether it has the ability is unclear. Compared with the nineteenth century, when Korea failed to adapt to a tectonic change, the overall ability has improved remarkably, but the ability to form domestic cohesion remains the least improved.

In 1997, a domestic financial crisis broke out with mass chaebol bankruptcy, and then a currency crisis broke out as Japanese banks suddenly pulled short-term loans out with a liquidity crisis at home. Japan was willing to provide the liquidity to cope with the situation; however, the United States brought the case to the IMF to open up South Korea’s capital market and realize its broader national interests in East Asia after the Cold War. South Koreans yet accepted the IMF conditionality willingly to utilize it as a momentum for the reforms they thought desirable. The country carried out thoroughgoing reforms while failing to consider the complementarities between the new and existing institutions. The reforms improved corporate governance and purged the system producing non-performing loans, but they undermined the mechanism of the high economic growth. They also led to the massive layoff of workers and the sale of assets to foreigners.

Chapter Four lays the groundwork by discussing the critical components of coal sector regulation in China, including pricing, investment approval, and capacity control. While the coal sector in China has been steered towards marketisation, government intervention, primarily through pricing regulation and investment approval, has created regulatory ambiguities and complexities for implementation. This chapter also discusses the implications of the capacity control mechanism on coal production and consumption, raising essential questions about the scope of fuel switching under the existing legal and regulatory arrangements.

Chapter Three provides an overview of the supporting mechanisms under China’s Renewable Energy Law and their effects in driving large-scale renewable energy investment in China. This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the contributing factors, mainly from legal and regulatory perspectives, to the curtailment of renewable energy in the Chinese context. It also discusses newly adopted administrative measures to facilitate the integration of renewable energy. This chapter sheds light on the limited role of market reform in achieving large-scale renewable energy penetration in China and highlights the future direction of market development based on the latest reform objectives.