Over the past 30 years China’s rapid economic growth has led to a rising energy demand. As of 2012 China became the world’s second-largest oil consumer and importer behind the US. China had no choice but to go beyond its borders search for oil around the world in order to satisfy its growing energy needs, despite being the world’s fourth-largest oil producer.
By Weifeng Zhou
Over the past 30 years China’s rapid economic growth has led to a rising energy demand. As of 2012 China became the world’s second-largest oil consumer and importer behind the US. China had no choice but to go beyond its borders search for oil around the world in order to satisfy its growing energy needs, despite being the world’s fourth-largest oil producer. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), China overtook the US as the world’s largest oil importer in 2013, a position occupied by the latter for almost 40 years. Against such a background, ensuring energy supplies remains at the top of the Chinese foreign policy agenda, as it is important to maintain stable economic growth and domestic stability.
Image Attribute: LNG Carrier Galea / Source: Wikimedia Commons
As energy security is fully linked to China’s national economic security it has become an integral part of China’s global strategy. Due to its ever increasing thirst for oil, there is a consensus among scholars in Chinese Studies and International Relations that China as the world’s top oil importer has affirmatively strategic interests in the South China Sea. And Beijing’s assertive move over its sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea has importance for its energy, economic and national security. In fact, the essence of energy security rests on two interrelated and interconnected elements: the energy supply from the Persian Gulf and energy route security. And both of them are of importance for China’s energy security.
Source: EIA.gov
Over the past decade China
has endeavoured to diversify its energy suppliers and routes in order to reduce
its heavy dependence on Persian-Gulf oil and the Strait of Malacca, and to
consolidate its energy security by developing new energy routes: the
Myanmar-China pipelines and the Iran-Pakistan-China pipelines, transporting
Persian-Gulf oil over the Indian Ocean without passing through the Straits of
Malacca. The first route has been successfully completed and operated and the
second route has been planned. The narrow Straits of Malacca, the most
strategic checkpoint and most critical channel connecting the Indian and
Pacific Oceans, has economic, political and strategic importance for China. For
a long time, the Straits are co-managed exclusively by Singapore, Malaysia and
Indonesia and they refuse the participation and intervention of any other
country in their management. Following the 11 September attack, the US was,
however, granted the use of the Changi Naval Base in Singapore to enhance
anti-terror intelligence and security cooperation with the Straits surrounding
countries. The US military presence in the Straits of Malacca allows Washington
to exert significant influence over China’s sea-route security. In particular,
it can pose a severe threat to China’s energy and economic security in the
event of a conflict with the US. During the 10th Shangri-La Dialogue in
Singapore, China’s Defence Minister Liang Guanglie proposed for the first time
that ‘China needs to take a more active role over the management of the Strait
of Malacca’.This
explicitly reflects China’s growing concerns over its trade and energy-route
security.
As sovereignty over the
South China Sea involves China’s economic, energy, and national security and is
a core interest, it is not difficult to see that China cannot afford to lose
the ‘sovereignty claims battle’ over the South China Sea. First, China’s
sovereignty over the South China Sea will completely resolve its ‘Malacca
dilemma’, which has existed for many years. China’s sovereignty over the South
China Sea enables the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to establish military
bases over the Paracels and Spratlys as the strategic spots safeguarding its
trade and energy routes through the Strait of Malacca. Apart from Yulin naval
base located near the South China Sea, the PLA established a massive new naval
base in Hainan Island in 2013 for its nuclear submarines and second aircraft
carrier. And the PLA’s two naval bases in the South China Sea can provide any
necessary military and maritime support for advancing and defending its
strategic interests in the area. Secondly, the deployment of China’s naval and
air forces on islands and in waters of the South China Sea will be of
importance for advancing and defending its strategic interests in the
surrounding region: (1) effectively fortifying its trade and energy-route
security in the South China Sea; (2) significantly offsetting any potential
threat to its sea-route security, mainly from the US Navy presence in the
Strait of Malacca; and (3) solidly protecting any further action to explore oil
and gas resources, undertake maritime patrols and assert its sovereignty over
the South China Sea. According to a report in the New York Times,
China has, as of June 2015, rapidly built seven artificial islands over the
disputed Spratlys in the space of 18 months, accounting for over 2000 acres in
size, as large as 1,500 football fields. In addition, China has built
airstrips, ports, helipads and other infrastructures in the artificial islands
and will make them new strategic points for protecting its sea-route security
and asserting its sovereignty over the disputed South China Sea.
China’s claim over the South
China Sea involves its national security interests. Its sovereignty over the
South China Sea would enable it to exercise great influence over sea-route
security of East Asia. This
would have a direct impact on Japanese and South Korean sea route (trade and
energy) security, as most of the oil imports of these two powerful North-East
Asian economies come from the Persian Gulf, passing through the Straits of
Malacca and the South China Sea (near the Spratlys). Since China has
territorial disputes with Japan over the Diaoyudao (Senkaku) Islands, dominance
over the South China Sea allows Beijing to have a strategic chip and leverage
over the Sino-Japanese strategic rivalry in East Asia, implying that it will
greatly enhance Beijing’s strategic position over the East China Sea disputes
as well as in its competition for regional leadership. From a Chinese
perspective, the control of the South China Sea is a vital key to resolving the
‘Japan problem’, including the East China Sea disputes and Sino-Japan strategic
rivalry. While China continues the construction of artificial islands in the
South China Sea, the Filipino president Benigno Aquino III visited Japan in
June 2015 to seek Japan’s support in the South China Sea disputes, while
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that Japan would offer its ‘utmost
support’ for the Philippines against China’s aggressive action. Soon, the two
countries held their first joint naval manoeuvres in the South China Sea and
Japan further expressed its willingness to join the US in maritime air patrols
in the area reflecting its strategic importance for its economic, energy and
national security. Japan’s attitude towards the South China Sea disputes also
reflects Tokyo’s growing concerns over Beijing’s dominance over the South China
Sea.
The US has traditionally
played a leading role in Asian affairs for decades and still maintains a
dominant influence in the Asia-Pacific region. In particular, the US military
presence in East Asia is of importance for its power projection in the region.The
US-Japan and US-South Korea alliances are two pillars of its leadership in the
region that constitute an integral part of its hegemonic power at a global
level. But this has changed with the awakening of the sleeping dragon. China’s
rising power and influence is reshaping the regional strategic balance and will
greatly undermine the existing regional security architecture the US has shaped
and dominated since the Cold War. China’s rise as a global power has been a
reality and it is the most prominent event of the 21st century in creating a
new regional order. In response to the changing strategic realities in East
Asia, Washington has devised a mixed strategy to hedge, rebalance and contain
China’s growing power and influence by using its diplomatic, cultural, economic
and military means in order to maintain its dominant power in the region. No
doubt Washington views Beijing as great challenge to its dominant power in East
Asia while Beijing sees Washington as a major threat to its core interests in
the region. Due to the geopolitical and geostrategic considerations, the South
China Sea has made it strategically vital for both Beijing and Washington to
dominate East Asia, giving rise the Sino-US strategic competition in the South
China Sea, which explains the escalating tensions in the area.
From a Chinese perspective,
the US military presence in East Asia poses a great threat to its national
security, as Washington has adopted a ‘hostile’ strategy to contain China’s
rise. China’s sovereignty over the South China Sea would entitle it to build
military bases and deploy the PLA navy and air force over the area, greatly
enhancing its strategic environment by building a sphere of power and influence
in the surrounding region. China’s attempt to secure a stable backyard will
considerably fortify its strategic position in the Sino-US rivalry in the
region. The 2015 Chinese defence white paper issued by China’s State Council
highlighted a new military strategy, moving from a ‘defensive posture’ to a
more ‘active defence posture’ and a greater Chinese naval presence in the
surrounding region. This is important to advance and protect China’s strategic
interests in the South China Sea. Furthermore, China’s dominance over the area
should lead to a ‘domino effect’ on the East China Sea disputes. Finally,
Beijing would achieve its first island-chain policy to limit US power
projection and offset US military influence in the region by sealing off the
Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea within an arc running
from the Aleutians in the north to Borneo in the south. According to the Global
Times, ‘If the US’s bottom line is that China has to halt its assertive
activities, then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea’. This is
one of China’s most influential and popular newspapers and is run by the
Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper the People’s Daily. It
definitively reflects the strategic importance of the South China Sea for
China’s national security.
About The Author:
About The Author:
Weifeng Zhou, PhD candidate at the
Department of Political Science and International Relations, Autonomous
University of Madrid
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Published on November 5, 2015