China's Global Hunt for Energy

TLDR

China’s rapid economic expansion, urbanization, and industrialization have turned it from a former oil exporter into a major global resource importer, compelling its foreign policy to secure energy and raw materials. China now accounts for 31 % of global oil demand growth, has doubled its share of key metals to about 20 %, and, despite political calls to curb consumption, its economy is projected to grow at 9 % annually for the next two decades.

Abstract

AN UNPRECEDENTED need for resources is now driving China's foreign policy. A booming domestic economy, rapid urbanization, increased export processing, and the Chinese people's voracious appetite for cars are increasing the country's demand for oil and natural gas, in dustrial and construction materials, foreign capital and technology. Twenty years ago, China was East Asia's largest oil exporter. Now it is the world's second-largest importer; last year, it alone accounted for 31 percent of global growth in oil demand. Now that China is the work shop of the world, its hunger for electricity and industrial resources has surged. China's combined share ofthe world's consumption ofaluminum, copper, nickel, and iron ore more than doubled within only ten years, from 7 percent in 1ggo to 15 percent in 2oO; it has now reached about 20 percent and is likely to double again by the end of the decade. Despite calls by Prime Minister WenJiabao and other politicians to cut consumption of energy and other resources, there is little sign of this appetite abating. Justin Yifu Lin, director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, in Beijing, says the country's economy could grow at 9 percent per year for the next 20 years. These new needs already have serious implications for China's foreign policy. Beijing's access to foreign resources is necessary both for