China Security: China's Defining Challenge: Engery, Issue #3

30 August 2006

Author: Eric Hagt, WSI China Director

Click here for electronic version

China Security is a unique policy journal that brings diverse Chinese perspectives to Washington. By focusing on vital traditional (nuclear, space, non-proliferation, grand strategy) and non-traditional security issues (energy, crisis management, socioeconomic challenges) that impact China's strategic development path, China Security seeks to explore China's future policy direction and its relations with the United States.

In this current issue, China Security invites a number of Chinese (and American) authors to explore the critical challenges and opportunities that energy security poses for China both at home and abroad. (see subscribe and unsubscribe information below)

Energy Interdependence, by Zha Daojiong (PDF)
"Awareness about China's geographical vulnerability should be turned into a powerful strategic motivation for cooperation with the powers that have the capacity to adversely affect China's oil supply security."
Zha Daojiong is chair of the Department of International Political Economy at the Renmin University of China.

Sea Power and China's Strategic Choices, by Zhang Wenmu (PDF)
"China's oil import routes are the Achilles heel to contemporary China, as they have forced China to entrust its fate to others. Therefore, it is imperative that China, as a nation, pay attention to its maritime security and the means to defend its interests through sea power."
Zhang Wenmu is a professor at the Center for Strategic Studies at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The Oil Weapon: Myth of China's Vulnerabilities, by Bruce Blair, Chen Yali, and Eric Hagt (PDF)
"China's fears of energy insecurity peak with the specter of Sino-American tension and conflict leading to a U.S. blockade of China's oil imports from the Middle East." Bruce Blair is the president of the World Security Institute; Chen Yali is editor in chief of Washington Observer; and Eric Hagt is director of the China Program at WSI.

Institutional Insecurity, by Kong Bo (PDF)
"The way energy institutions are structured and operate in China predisposes the country toward a series of loosely connected policies that are inconsistent, short-sighted and ad hoc, precluding them from producing any coherent and long-term national energy strategy... and fail to effectively safeguard the country's energy security."
Kong Bo is a PhD candidate in China Studies and International Policy at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Energy Conservation as Security, by Wang Qingyi (PDF)
"[China's] bureaucracy is on a grand scale and, unfortunately, it also wastes energy on a grand scale."
Wang Qingyi has worked in numerous government and private institutions on China's energy strategy and policies.

Politics vs. Market, by Mao Yushi (PDF)
"The use of political influence to compete for oil supply is always dangerous as there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics." Mao Yushi was most recently the director of the Unirule Institute of Economics.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To subscribe to the electronic PDF version of China Security, please fill out the brief application below. We will keep all information confidential and will only use it to confirm your subscription status. To unsubscribe, please click the "unsubscribe" link below. To receive a hard copy, please email [email protected] and write "subscribe hard copy" in the subject heading. Please note that only a limited number of free hard copies are available.

China Security is produced by the World Security Institute China Program (worldsecurityinstitute.org; www.wsichina.org). China Security will have a dedicated website operating in the fall of 2006 at: www.chinasecurity.us. Eric Hagt Editor China Security World Security Institute China Program 1779 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington, D.C. 20036