Shi Dan: Understanding China’s Energy Strategy and its Sustained Economic Growth: Present and Future

Abstract: Heavy investment on energy resources is one of the reasons for the rapid economic growth we have witnessed in China since 2000. Excessive energy consumption growth strengthens China's coal-dominated energy structure. Meanwhile, the supply of energy has been fully converted to net imports, weakening favourable factors for economic growth and increasing the risk of energy security. The nationalization level for the energy sector is much higher than for other industries. But even for state-owned enterprises, there is a huge gap in enterprise efficiency between different production processes. European countries and theUnited States’ protectionism suffocated the rapid development of China's new energy industry. With a changing domestic and international energy market environment, China’s energy industry should switch from the speed-oriented model in the past and adjust obsolete mechanisms and policies.

Keywords: Energy supply and demand, Energy security, Energy efficiency, Energy policy 

Source: China Finance and Economic Review, Volume 1, Number 1, 2012