Beyond contradiction: The state and the market in contemporary Chinese water governance

•State control and marketisation in Chinese water governance are complementary rather than contradictory.•China’s water reform mirrors its overall economic reform taking an experimental approach.•The state/market dichotomisation has little power to explain complexity of water governance.•Attention to the ‘both-and’ hybridisation helps better understand the roles of state and market in water governance.•Hybridisation of water governance takes diverse forms shaped by their particular political economies.