China: foreign policy via energy or energy via foreign policy?

With the country’s energy needs having increased rapidly due to the unprecedented economic growth, it’s apparent that the energy security concerns have become important in influencing the thinking, formation and implementation of China’s foreign policy. While this perceived energy insecurity has become an increasingly influencing factor in China’s international behavior, it cannot be argued that the country’s energy needs is the most important dimension in Beijing’s foreign policy calculations. By employing every available tool at its disposal at the political level and by mobilizing the country’s economic might and capacity at the financial and industrial levels, China pursues not only the establishment and advance of its political and economic ties with the resources-rich developing countries for energy security reasons, but also a growing presence in such countries. These movements should be seen in a multi-dimensional context, where the country’s worldwide-expanding economic and political interests compete and interact with domestic political and social adjustments and balances.