# What, if anything, can we learn from China's example? **URL:** \ **Category:** Policy & Politics\ **Created:** [October 15, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://ukenergyforum.org/t/what-if-anything-can-we-learn-from-chinas-example/42 "2026-10-15T13:08:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tom\_Welsh](https://ukenergyforum.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@Tom\_Welsh](https://ukenergyforum.org/u/Tom_Welsh)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://ukenergyforum.org/t/what-if-anything-can-we-learn-from-chinas-example/42/1 "2026-10-15T13:08:34Z")
This was my first try at Richard’s request for a single question about the UK energy system. At his suggestion I am copying it into this category where it belongs. I appreciate that my question sounds naive and perhaps simplistic, but we have to start somewhere. So… Why can’t we follow the Chinese model and have the government do what it thinks best for everyone? Drawing on the abilities and work of the best suited people, of course. Richard’s articles (and others) keep highlighting dreadful lack of planning and even simple anticipation. I think there are issues of scale that are not being noticed. The government listens to various pitches and eventually settles on policies. Then there is the little matter of carrying out those policies, mostly (I guess) through the private sector. I fear that when trying to revolutionise the whole power supply system of a nation of about 70 million, one must plan far ahead and coordinate plans as closely as possible. However when big decisions such as whether to expand nuclear power remain open, time scales stretch out for decades rather than just years. Then there is the risk that new governments may change the plans - replacing the airliner’s engines in flight, as the saying goes. It seems to me that the Communist Party of China (the correct title) has evolved a very effective model. Very roughly, the CPC decides what should be done and when - setting the strategic goals - but then brings in private enterprise to implement the plans, encouraging competition between firms. They seem to have had great success so far. Does anyone know anything more specific about how China has handled its energy requirements, and what we in the UK can learn from them? I very much hope that others know a lot more than I do. 🕶 ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Welsh](https://ukenergyforum.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@Tom\_Welsh](https://ukenergyforum.org/u/Tom_Welsh)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 1:26pm UTC](https://ukenergyforum.org/t/what-if-anything-can-we-learn-from-chinas-example/42/2 "2026-10-15T13:26:16Z")
A propos my previous mention of “dreadful lack of planning and even simple anticipation”, I have just seen Steve Davison’s 1st April (but apparently non-spoof) article [Net Zero - the Art of Believing 10 Impossible Things Before Breakfast](https://www.baffledbyscience.com/p/net-zero-the-art-of-believing-10) Steve wrote: “Ed Miliband is the prime exemplar of his class. It is astonishing that someone in charge of energy policy can have so little understanding of his brief. It does not help that he is surrounded by people who reinforce his beliefs, in a supercharged echo chamber, formalised in the form of the Climate Change Committee”. I hope I am not straying out of bounds for this forum, but a very large part of the problem consists of the people who are presuming to set policy and drive it forward. In China, virtually all (maybe all without exception) senior government officials are at the very least STEM graduates, most with postgraduate degrees and some with extensive research experience. Britain has a tradition of amateurism, both in politics and the civil service; but I think everyone will agree that energy policy is not the right place for amateurs. Is it possible to shape a competent professional organisation to choose and carry out an optimal energy strategy - while remaining open to democratic debate and scrutiny? ---
**Author:** ![Rngeye](https://ukenergyforum.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@Rngeye](https://ukenergyforum.org/u/Rngeye)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://ukenergyforum.org/t/what-if-anything-can-we-learn-from-chinas-example/42/3 "2026-10-18T19:58:16Z")
Maybe the Chinese model is seemingly more effective because it can ‘force’ targets on industry and the people. There is also the scale (land, people, resources) available in the country, not available in the UK. (I don’t know much about energy other than what has been gleaned from various substacks so maybe this is too ‘simplistic’ a reply) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_Stone](https://ukenergyforum.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@Tim\_Stone](https://ukenergyforum.org/u/Tim_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2026, 7:42pm UTC](https://ukenergyforum.org/t/what-if-anything-can-we-learn-from-chinas-example/42/4 "2026-10-28T19:42:55Z")
For China, solar and wind are at 22% of the power. From the curtailment graphs, showing the UK just about to be rapidly increasing the curtailment payments, China is actually behind the UK in terms of proportion of solar and wind. The UK is at around 45-50% wind and solar. The UK as a “world-leader” is at the bleeding edge, the pathfinder, so won’t be learning from China. If we had done this more slowly, and kept the proportion of solar and wind to less than that of China, we could learn from their mistakes, but at this rate, the UK will be making the mistakes and other countries will be learning from us. Perhaps what might be more important is that if the costs of curtailment are not capped, it will encourage electricity users to self-generate as much as possible to keep costs down, an automatic feedback mechanism. If China is all central control, then they may be able to change the pricing structure of curtailment in ways that the UK hasn’t built into the CFDs. Perhaps it is time to take stock and pause rapid expansion of renewables until a more economic pricing structure can be determined, or perhaps they could do a new pricing structure anyway, to reduce the curtailment payments for future wind farms, down to a capacity payment type structure, of much lower value, for non-generation. Does China have curtailment payments built into their wind supply contracts? What are the supply contracts like in China?