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We explore how governance structures influence different transition pathways in China’s green energy transitions. The paper identifies two different governance structures that emerged in two of China’s provinces. One structure follows the developmental state model; the other departs from the existing model by engaging with a wide range of actors, this model being characterised as ‘distributed governance structures’. Although it is still too early to conclude which model will be dominant in the future, these two models may result in two divergent transition pathways for China’s future low-carbon development. We therefore present two governance scenarios for China’s future energy transitions and discuss their general implications. One governance capacity depends on the developmental state and its capacities to reflectively collect information and build knowledge capacity by engaging with big players. The other governance capacity depends on distributed capacity among a wide range of actors, and the learning and interactions among them.