Asia Sentinel published an excerpt of Jasper Becker’s new book, “Dragon Rising: An Inside Look at China Today” (Part 2 of 2):
So far it is China’s search to secure supplies of oil that is affecting the rest of the world. China’s biggest domestic oil fields in Daqing in the northeast and the Shengli oil fields in the Yellow River valley have now peaked. China is tapping new oil and gas fields in Xinjiang and off-shore in the Gulf of Bohai and the South China Seas. It is already in dispute with its neighbors like Japan and Vietnam over the rights to exploit underwater fields further offshore. And it is competing with Japan to buy Siberian oil and going head to head with India to stake out oil fields in Angola and Nigeria, and challenging the United States for access from its traditional suppliers like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Washington has become alarmed by China’s willingness to do deals with rogue regimes like Sudan, Burma and Iran that are sitting on untapped reserves . The United States has accused Sudan of genocide in the Darfur region but China is the largest investor in Sudan, where it has built a pipeline. Worried by China’s hunger for energy, Washington blocked an attempt by Beijing to buy Unocal, a major US oil company. [Full Text]
– Read Part 1 of 2 here.
– See Jasper Becker’s website.
(Photo source: Environmental-Finance.)
