Abstract
While access to adequate and reliable energy resources remains vital to China’s economic growth strategy, it is unclear whether the seizure of those resources is in China’s plans so long as other means of acquiring them are available. Economic growth is unquestionably important to Beijing’s leaders and the legitimacy of their rule, in light of the decline of communism as a unifying ideology. Since energy is so important to sustained economic growth, it is not surprising that energy self-sufficiency has long been a concern for Beijing. Still,future increases in Chinese energy consumption are certain if China is to meet the lofty goals of industrial modernization and economic expansion at a 7 percent annual growth rate outlined by Jiang Zemin in the Tenth Five-Year Plan. China will have to find new energy resources as well as undertake energy-efficiency measures, conservation, and especially energy price reform.
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