China’s new energy haven: opportunities and challenges in Central Asia
Abstract
This chapter considers China's attempt to ensure access to Central Asian hydrocarbon reserves as a means of fostering its own energy security. Beijing therefore permanently has to perform a fragile balancing act of assuring its status as an economic force without fuelling neo-colonialist fears in the Central Asian republics. Given its unquenchable thirst for oil and growing appetite for gas, it is no surprise that China has set its gaze on the neighbouring Central Asian region, which harbours substantial natural resource deposits. In this context, it must be noted that this Post-Soviet state's oil production has substantially increased since the fall of the Soviet Union,15 owing to the closing down of inefficient factories and growing investments in the oil sector from abroad. Given the instability in Tajikistan during the civil war period, it is not surprising that relations took the longest to develop between Beijing and Dushanbe.