ABSTRACT
To understand Chinese debates of the country’s energy security situation and means for addressing the associated challenges, one needs to bear in mind of two starting points: First, energy has become an integral issue for academics, policymakers and media commentators in their discussion of China’s foreign policy decisions and future choices. Second, given China’s current stage of development, the question of ‘who will fuel China’ draws researchers’ attention to geo-strategic perceptions of fossil energy. Foreign research agendas tend to focus on the geopolitical motives behind China’s sourcing of fossil fuels, and Chinese energy companies’ performance in corporate social responsibility where local regulatory mechanisms are weak. In contrast, Chinese researchers, policy makers and commentators generally favour a win-win prediction of China’s ambitious plans across the globe, which in general supports the idea that China’s acquisition of energy supply should override foreign observers’ concerns. Given this background, the chapter adopts the conceptual position that any
consideration of energy security must take into account a far wider range of considerations than geopolitical analysis (Zha, 2016). Common exaggerations of material and ideational threats result in a ‘cult of energy insecurity’, that is ‘the erroneous belief that national security requires ambitious and vigilant foreign policy measures to assure adequate access to energy’ (Cohen & Kirshner, 2012). In the case of China, ever since the country made the turn-around to
reconnect with the capitalist world economic system, there has been no deliberate disruption to the flow of energy commodities to its borders. In 2014, China remained the world’s largest energy consumer (23% of global energy consumption) and accounted for 61% of net global energy growth. China’s share in global energy demand is expected to rise from 22% to 26% in 2035, while its growth contributes 36% to the world’s net increase (BP, 2015a). China’s rising demand of energy implies that China is an integral component of the demand-supply dynamics at the global level. By tracing current trends in China’s debates on domestic energy security,
the chapter author aims to fill the conceptual gap between Chinese and
foreign observers in their appraisal of the energy-security nexus in China’s interaction with the rest of the world. The author recognizes better prospects for enhanced collaboration in world energy governance between China and other parties. After a brief discussion of the fundamental patterns of the energy situation in China, the chapter outlines three main narratives in domestic debates on the processes of policy formation related to energy security. The next section then explains the differences among these three narratives and policy implications by examining three specific policy cases related to maritime energy transit and access, land energy transit and nuclear energy.
