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328 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

on self-reliance existed outside the US-led capitalist world economic system.
In other words, it was merely an ideological challenge without being able to
construct a sustainable alternative model (or paradigm based on past 2010e16
historical evidence) to replace the capitalist system.
In addition, the Chinese self-reliance policy was also a response both to the
internal constraints of socioeconomic backwardness and the external pressure
by the US-led economic blockage and trade embargo after WWII and the
Korean War as well as from the failure of China’s dependent relations with the
Soviet Union since the Republic was founded in 1949. What should be pointed
out here is that China’s emphasis on self-reliance and independence in the
Chinese energy industry was primarily derived from the lessons learned due to
the Sino-Soviet split in which China was deprived not only of the Soviet
technicians and specialists who were helping China develop its industries but
also of around 50% of its oil supplies that were imported from the Soviet
2
Union (Downs, 2000,p.11e12). The discovery of the Dajing oil field at the
end of the 1950s was declared to mark the end of China’s external oil
dependence both for defense and civilian applications. Such was the case in
the modern market-oriented economy after Mao in the 1980s.
The post-Mao transformation of policy orientation from socialism to
market capitalism with its objectives has its roots in the change of the regime’s
perceptions of the external environment of international political economy since
the 1980s and especially due to the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.
The perceptions were generated from the conceptualization of international
relations that (1) the superpowers, including their respective alliances, were
exhausted in their endless competition, leading to a situation in which no major
serious conflict was likely in the future even with the almost decade-long US
military involvement in the Middle East and the 2011 military warplane
presence in Northern Africa.
On the other hand, there would be the emergence of nonconventional
security challenges whereby the Chinese governmentecontrolled oil and
gas companies bought international oil- and gas-producing and transport
companies. (2) Economic development became the key objective for all
nations, and economic power thus emerged to become more important and
relevant than traditional military strength. Thus, soon, China had to face
economic interdependence by increasing its global economic presence through
fuel supplies; (3) the posteCold War US-based and US-controlled world order,
which is an American-centric new world order, would likely remain for an
unknown period of time. Therefore, China should, in the words of Deng,
“observe calmly, secure our position, cope with affairs calmly, hide our
capacities and bide our time”; and (4) hence there would be growing global

2. Daqing was the largest oil field in China, and it is located in Heilongjiang province. It was
discovered in 1959, and the production started in 1960.