Page 372 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

Energy Economics in China’s Policy-Making Plan Chapter j 17 345

CONCLUSION REMARKS: CHALLENGES AND OPTIMISM
AHEAD

The objective of the chapter is to provide a framework of critically under-
standing China’s transformation from a self-reliance development path to a
“market-driven” dependent growth strategy to now a “social capitalist” economic
system. The chapter’s emphasis is onthe economic and ecological consequence of
China’s insatiable demandfor energydriven bythegrowth-based industrialization
policy in the past decades. This chapter argues that since the beginning of the
21st century, energyhas becomea key concern onthe agenda of China’s economic
and foreign policy-making calculations as it moves rapidly into the 3IR. Among
China’s core national interestsdsecuring energy resources, generating national
renewable companies and systems, gaining market access, and political
recognitiondenergy and economic security is the top priority for developing
a sustainable nation. It is expected with the rapid economic development and
the improvement of people’s living standard that the energy demand in China
will unavoidably continue to increase, which will be inseparable with its
environmental problems, such as the emission of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide,
and particulates among other issues of pollution and waste.
Above all, the Western definition of “market-driven” economies in energy is
questionable in China such that different definitions and meanings are need for
“market” and therefore “capitalism.” And that is what China has done. It has
redefined capitalism so that it has a societal focus, direction, and set of policy
along with financial strategies. For example, the rapidly emerging renewable
energy industry in China has created a new market finance mechanism for
long-term debt, which involves the Chinese business financing the entire sale,
installation, and operations along with maintenance of the renewable energy
technologies and products. In short, China may have discovered a new form of
The World Bank.
Chinese policy makers understand the fact that due to a growing need for and
even competition over energy resources and maritime transportation security,
global resource-based competition and geoterritorial claims on sea areas and
shelves will become harsh and could lead to armed confrontations. To understand
the implication of the underlying dynamics of international political economy
in resource-rich regions, it is of great importance to understand the source of
international economic competition and the political conflict for access to energy
and natural resources to understand the interactions between individual national
interests. The international geopolitics and geoeconomics in the acquisition
and distribution of states’ wealth and power is manifested in the respective
country’s economic and foreign policies.
China’s soaring demand for energy in connection with its export-oriented
economy poses a variety of new challenges for its economic and foreign policy.
Hence the country will be more and more dependent on the purchase of natural
resources abroad for sustaining its economic development. Any crisis to China’s
access to overseas resource and maritime shipping routes will have a negative