{"id":170271,"date":"2014-03-14T21:58:07","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T04:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=170271"},"modified":"2014-03-14T21:58:07","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T04:58:07","slug":"economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/","title":{"rendered":"Economy and Levi On China’s Resource Quest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Micah Zenko interviews Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi about their new book<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0From The Council on Foreign Relations blog on Politics, Power, and Preventative Action:<\/p>\n

1. Does China have a clearly identifiable, achievable resource strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Levi<\/strong>: The Chinese government has a series of resource-related strategies. It has long had a goal of increasing Chinese firms\u2019 overseas investments in critical resources, and Beijing has put in place a series of tools to help them be more effective in doing that. China has a goal of increasing the efficiency with which it uses resources and it has a set of strategies, or tools, for trying to accomplish that. In individual diplomatic engagements, China often factors its resource needs into its diplomacy. And when its military thinks about its various priorities it thinks about protection of and risks to the secure flow of resources from overseas back into China. But that leaves two big questions. One: is all of this coherently brought together? I\u2019m skeptical. Two: how often do China\u2019s capabilities match its intentions? That varies enormously.<\/p>\n

[…] 5. What is the biggest misperception that you hear, even from informed audiences, about your book and how would you correct that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Economy<\/strong>: For me, the greatest misperception is that China is the \u201ccookie monster\u201d of the resource world, that somehow it is going out and gobbling up resources all over the world. In fact, we found that China is the fourth-largest investor in Africa, the third-largest investor in South East Asia, third-largest investor in Latin America, and the third-largest investor in land overseas. In many respects, its ability to coordinate an effective and diplomatic resource strategy is much less than what we typically believe\u2014Chinese companies and firms are far more independent actors than we think, sometimes electing not to participate in what Beijing wants to do in terms of a big overarching package of investment, trade and aid, and sometimes going out by themselves and causing all sorts of problems for Beijing. It\u2019s a much less coordinated and cohesive resource strategy, and, in some ways, less successful strategy than I think I, maybe we, anticipated.<\/p>\n

Levi<\/strong>: A myth is that Chinese leaders get what they want. We have a habit, that isn\u2019t restricted to this particular discussion, of hearing scary-sounding goals or pronouncements and assuming that is how reality will turn out, which leads us to often overreact or react in the wrong ways. What Chinese leaders want is not necessarily what they get, in part because of what Liz said. They often have less capacity to command outcomes than they might hope or that someone who reads the \u201cChina for a Day\u201d chapter in Tom Friedman\u2019s book, Hot Flat and Crowded, might conclude. Also, as big as China is, the global economy and the global security system are all also pretty big things and pretty resilient systems. Fifteen years ago Chinese leaders were skeptical of markets and thought they might move to a way of securing oil that didn\u2019t rely as much on markets. However, the market has been a pretty remarkable and resilient institution itself. You can see examples like this over and over. The countries, market players, and institutions around the world, exert extraordinarily powerful forces on China even as China is influencing the rest of the world. As a result you see China changing in some ways as much through its own resource quest as it is changing the world itself. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Watch an interview with Levi and Economy which addresses whether China is “taking lessons from abroad.” From The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs:<\/p>\n

[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Fe-t66-McTg[\/youtube]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

See also a review of the book by Howard French at The Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Micah Zenko interviews Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi about their new book\u00a0By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World.\u00a0\u00a0From The Council on Foreign Relations blog on Politics, Power, and Preventative Action: 1. Does China have a clearly identifiable, achievable resource strategy? Michael Levi: The Chinese government has a series of resource-related […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":170281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[116,2,132,14744,14745,14746,100,6],"tags":[339,1037,779,629],"class_list":["post-170271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-economy","category-environmental-crisis","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-sci-tech","tag-elizabeth-economy","tag-natural-resources","tag-overseas-investment","tag-resources","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nEconomy and Levi On China's Resource Quest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Economy and Levi On China's Resource Quest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Micah Zenko interviews Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi about their new book\u00a0By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World.\u00a0\u00a0From The Council on Foreign Relations blog on Politics, Power, and Preventative Action: 1. Does China have a clearly identifiable, achievable resource strategy? Michael Levi: The Chinese government has a series of resource-related […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"617\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"452\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Natalie Ornell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Natalie Ornell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Natalie Ornell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/cf027b90455e81f6db9dc9cbc96bf9dd\"},\"headline\":\"Economy and Levi On China’s Resource Quest\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/\"},\"wordCount\":647,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Elizabeth Economy\",\"natural resources\",\"overseas investment\",\"resources\"],\"articleSection\":[\"China & the World\",\"Economy\",\"Environment\",\"Level 2 Article\",\"Level 3 Article\",\"Level 4 Article\",\"Politics\",\"Sci-Tech\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/\",\"name\":\"Economy and Levi On China's Resource Quest\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png\",\"width\":617,\"height\":452},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Economy and Levi On China’s Resource Quest\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times (CDT)\",\"description\":\"Covering China from Cyberspace\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"width\":186,\"height\":177,\"caption\":\"China Digital Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/cdt\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/cf027b90455e81f6db9dc9cbc96bf9dd\",\"name\":\"Natalie Ornell\",\"description\":\"Natalie Ornell is a Master's student in Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. She completed her undergraduate degree in East Asian Studies and English at Wellesley College. At Wellesley, she freelanced for an immigrant-focused newspaper in Boston's Chinatown, the Sampan, and also interned as a reporter at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She currently serves as an Ambassador for the television program, LinkAsia, in San Francisco. You can read her blog on Asia-related events at UC Berkeley by visiting http:\/\/asiaberkeley.tumblr.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/author\/nornell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Economy and Levi On China's Resource Quest","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Economy and Levi On China's Resource Quest","og_description":"Micah Zenko interviews Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi about their new book\u00a0By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest is Changing the World.\u00a0\u00a0From The Council on Foreign Relations blog on Politics, Power, and Preventative Action: 1. Does China have a clearly identifiable, achievable resource strategy? Michael Levi: The Chinese government has a series of resource-related […]","og_url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/","og_site_name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","article_published_time":"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":617,"height":452,"url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Natalie Ornell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cdt","twitter_site":"@cdt","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Natalie Ornell","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/"},"author":{"name":"Natalie Ornell","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/cf027b90455e81f6db9dc9cbc96bf9dd"},"headline":"Economy and Levi On China’s Resource Quest","datePublished":"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/"},"wordCount":647,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png","keywords":["Elizabeth Economy","natural resources","overseas investment","resources"],"articleSection":["China & the World","Economy","Environment","Level 2 Article","Level 3 Article","Level 4 Article","Politics","Sci-Tech"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/","url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/","name":"Economy and Levi On China's Resource Quest","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png","datePublished":"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-15T04:58:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/By-All-Means-Necessary.png","width":617,"height":452},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/03\/economy-levi-discuss-chinas-resource-quest\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Economy and Levi On China’s Resource Quest"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","description":"Covering China from Cyberspace","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization","name":"China Digital Times","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","width":186,"height":177,"caption":"China Digital Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","https:\/\/x.com\/cdt"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/cf027b90455e81f6db9dc9cbc96bf9dd","name":"Natalie Ornell","description":"Natalie Ornell is a Master's student in Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. She completed her undergraduate degree in East Asian Studies and English at Wellesley College. At Wellesley, she freelanced for an immigrant-focused newspaper in Boston's Chinatown, the Sampan, and also interned as a reporter at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She currently serves as an Ambassador for the television program, LinkAsia, in San Francisco. You can read her blog on Asia-related events at UC Berkeley by visiting http:\/\/asiaberkeley.tumblr.com.","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/author\/nornell\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}