China's Hunt For Energy

China's Hunt

China and its economy have been on a rise the last couple of years. The explosion in China's domestic economy, urbanization, export processing, and their desire to start dipping into the car industry for modes of transportation, have heavily increased the demand on oil and natural gas. On top of the demand of oil and gas comes, industrial and

construction materials, foreign capital and technology. Two decades ago China was East

Asia's largest oil exporter. Now it has become the world's second largest importer. China's

consumption of raw materials and natural resources continue to highly increase. The Prime

Minister Wen Jiabao and other politicians have called out to cut consumption of energy

and other resources, but it does not look like this will be taken in effect, because it is

calculated that China's economy could grow at 9 percent per year for the next 20 years.

These needs have serious implications for China's foreign policy. Beijing's access

to foreign resources is necessary both for continued economic growth and because growth

is the rock for China's social stability and for the survival of the Chinese Communist Party.

In the long term, China's new demands for energy shouldn't be a source of serious conflict,

but Beijing and Washington feel very uneasy about the situation. As China manages the

sudden boom, the United States, as the world's influencer, now has to make room for the

rising giant

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