The main complaint was not the U.S. and European economies, but about taxes and fees charged by local governments, regional protectionism and tight credit, said Fan Gang, director of the National Economics Research Institute at the China Reform Foundation, which compiled the data.

FORBES: China Inc. Blames Govt. For Worsening Market

But according to Lester Thurow, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the keynote speaker at the National Rural Electric Co-operative Association's annual meeting in Las Vegas, their competitive advantage over private power companies has probably gone.

ECONOMIST: Cross-country co-operation