China and the Energy Equation in Asia: The Determinants of Policy Choice

摘要

An assured supply of affordable energy has been the backbone of the economic success that the People's Republic of China has enjoyed since the beginning of the reform era. China had enough energy resources domestically to sustain its requirements until it became a net importer of oil in 1993. Since then, its quest for the global resources of energy has been unending, owing to its industrial progress and growing demand from the automobile boom that the country has experienced in the last decade or so. Today China is the second largest importer of crude oil, only behind the US, as it imports about 40 per cent of its total crude oil consumption. In the last decade, China has accounted for 50 per cent of the recorded growth in the global oil demand. In the days to come, more than 50 per cent of Chinese oil requirement will be imported.