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Arctic Yearbook 2013
The Drivers of Chinese Arctic Interests
materials. The sea-lanes of the world are dominated completely by the United States Navy and
occasionally troubled by piracy, which both raises important energy and transportation security
issues for China – perhaps in strategic competition with the USA, and certainly not allied with them.
Diversifying and eventually protecting sources and supply routes of energy and raw materials
therefore becomes a strategic objective for China, which brings the Arctic into the picture (Laliberté
& Lanteigne, 2008; Pan & Zhou, 2010; Blunden, 2012; Hong, 2012a, 2012b; Jakobson, 2010;
Jakobson & Peng, 2012; Jakobson & Lee, 2013; Rainwater, 2013; Xia 2011).
China‟s Energy and Raw Material Consumption
The phenomenal growth of China has been fuelled by manufacturing for export and investment in
infrastructure, which has made China into a major customer of both energy and raw materials. It is
this enormous demand for energy and raw materials at the basis of economic growth (legitimizing
the political order), which is the context for China‘s Arctic interests and possible strategy. This
section will introduce the context of energy and maritime security for China.
The world has already been burdened by the high energy-consumption of the West, particularly by
the United States. Today China‘s growing appetite for international trade drives its mounting
demand for resources to sustain its economic growth and to fuel its countless development projects.
China has already become the world‘s largest importer of a range of commodities, from copper to
steel and crude oil. The phenomenal rise of commodities prices worldwide in recent year is claimed
to be attributed to China‘s growing importation. If taking China‘s neighbor – India – into
consideration, a country with a population of 1 billion, it will add twice as much pressure on the
demand for the same resources.
In 2004 China contributed 4.4% of total world GDP, whereas China also consumed 30% of the
world‘s iron ore, 31% of its coal, 27% of its steel and 25% of its aluminum. Between 2000 and 2003,
China‘s share of the increase in global demand for aluminum, steel, nickel and copper was,
respectively, 76%, 95%, 99% and 100%. On a global scale, an increase in the rise of personal car
ownership alone could mean an extra billion cars on the road worldwide within the next 10 years.
The majority of these will be in China and India. As a Chinese researcher describes the mounting
worldwide impact of China‘s resource consumption:
The economic prosperity of China partnered by its rising energy demands will affect
global energy sectors, commodity stock exchange market, energy trading strategies
and environmental policies. Availability of fossil fuels, both in the near and long
term, will become also increasingly scarce as China absorbs a growing global share of
demand…. Although higher prices will stimulate innovation and research on
renewable and alternate energy sources, the expansion of global energy supply is still
not adequate to compensate China‘s energy demand growth. The rest of the world
will still have to manage and reduce energy demand through conservation (Zhang
Jian as quoted in
Huliq News
, 2008).
China‘s escalating energy consumption is placing increasing stress on the world‘s energy prices.
Chinese energy demand has more than doubled during the past decade. According to the study of
Konan and Jian (2008), China will consume about 41% of global coal consumption and 17% of