Advertisement
Two Sessions 2021
ChinaPolitics

China targets energy security as risks from US rivalry grow

  • New five-year plan calls for more oil and gas production to better safeguard power supplies
  • Strained relations with major economies could pose security concerns for country’s essential fossil fuel imports, analysts say

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
China seeks to better secure its natural gas supply as well as its supply of coal and production of crude oil. Photo: Xinhua
Sarah Zheng
China is putting more focus on energy security, with its latest five-year plan highlighting the need for higher oil and gas output as security risks rise along essential maritime trade routes.
The draft five-year policy released at the National People’s Congress (NPC) called for an energy strategy that would better secure the country’s coal supply, increase production of crude oil and natural gas and improve safeguards for its power supply. As part of a broader economic security blueprint the plan also called for oil and gas import sources to be more diverse and for the “safeguarding of the safety of strategic channels and key nodes”.

“We should strengthen the capacity of sustainable and stable energy supply and risk management … The core demand for oil and gas should rely on self sufficiency. We should maintain the stable production of crude oil and natural gas and increase output. Work should be carried out on layout planning and management of coal-to-gas strategic bases,” the report said.

This push for energy security is part of Beijing’s attempt to cut its dependence on other countries in strategically critical areas, as geopolitical rivalry between China and the US intensifies.

Apart from the energy sector, the Chinese government also stressed the importance of achieving food security and financial security in its latest five-year plan and it set the target rate of computer chip self-sufficiency at 70 per cent by 2025, up from 20 per cent now.

Analysts say Beijing’s growing emphasis on energy security coincides with increasingly strained relations with major economies that could pose security concerns for China’s oil and gas imports, upon which the country is heavily dependent. This includes potential risks to China’s energy supply routes in the South China Sea, the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca connecting the Indian Ocean to the Pacific.
Advertisement