Touching the "Pariah"
China's Economic and Strategic Interests in the Caspian Crescent With Special Reference to Beijing's Energy Policy Towards Post-Pahlavi Iran
1st Edition
Published in December 2010
Book
142 pages
978-3-8322-9614-8 (ISBN)
Description
In the course of China's rapid industrial growth, energy has emerged as the paramount faetor for the industrial development of the PRC, partieularly with respeet to oil and inereasingly natural gas. Beijing has adopted an energy seeurity poliey that prioritizes the steady supply of these strategie hydroearbons that boost China's industrial growth and expansion of soeial wealth. The Chinese government eonsiders any disruption of this energy supply ehain to be a threat to the eountry's pathway to power and implicitly to the stability of the CCP's regime. Beijing aetively pursues aeeess to the world's strategie oil and gas sourees. An important eomponent of this Going Out-strategy is the diversifieation and amplifieation of China's oil and gas import sources to minimize potential risks in supply.
Sinee the end of the 1st Gulf War and the demise of the former USSR in 1991, China has inereasingly eoneentrated its attention to the newly independent, hydroearbonrieh states around the Caspian Sea whieh are Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, figuratively shaping a geographie Caspian Creseent. The Caspian Creseent has in the past two deeades gained enormous strategie signifieanee among Beijing's energy seeurity poliey. Coneurrently, China's ties with Iran have sinee that time beeome very elose - a development that is not only due to Tehran's eomplieated and eonf/iet-Iaden relations with the West, but also to Iran's geo-strategie loeation between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf and its status as one of the world's major possessors of oil and gas.
This study foeuses on China's eeonomie and strategie interests in the Caspian Creseent and the means by whieh the PRC seeks to enforee them. In the course of this study it will be demonstrated that these interests are not only dominated by Beijing's heavy need for oil and gas but also that Iran is China's key partner Caspian Sea for the aeeomplishment of its hydroearbon-oriented objeetives and regional preponderanee, in partieular against the West. The study eoneludes with an analysis on the potential for eonfliet between China and the USA about the Caspian Creseent.
Sinee the end of the 1st Gulf War and the demise of the former USSR in 1991, China has inereasingly eoneentrated its attention to the newly independent, hydroearbonrieh states around the Caspian Sea whieh are Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, figuratively shaping a geographie Caspian Creseent. The Caspian Creseent has in the past two deeades gained enormous strategie signifieanee among Beijing's energy seeurity poliey. Coneurrently, China's ties with Iran have sinee that time beeome very elose - a development that is not only due to Tehran's eomplieated and eonf/iet-Iaden relations with the West, but also to Iran's geo-strategie loeation between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf and its status as one of the world's major possessors of oil and gas.
This study foeuses on China's eeonomie and strategie interests in the Caspian Creseent and the means by whieh the PRC seeks to enforee them. In the course of this study it will be demonstrated that these interests are not only dominated by Beijing's heavy need for oil and gas but also that Iran is China's key partner Caspian Sea for the aeeomplishment of its hydroearbon-oriented objeetives and regional preponderanee, in partieular against the West. The study eoneludes with an analysis on the potential for eonfliet between China and the USA about the Caspian Creseent.