By All Means Necessary: How China's Resource Quest Is Changing the World, by Elizabeth C. Economy and Michael Levi; Winner Take All: China’s Race for Resources and What It Means for the World, by Dambisa Moyo

Abstract

Reviewed by: Stefan Fergus, independent scholarA notable characteristic of China's astonishing economic development over the past few decades has been considerable growth in resource acquisition. China's strategies for meeting its resource needs have piqued the interest of journalists and academics alike.By All Means Necessary by Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi, and Winner Take All by Dambisa Moyo address the issues and concerns that have been raised with varying degrees of success. Both books provide clear summaries of China's global search for resources--be they energy, mineral, or agricultural. Economy and Levi work methodically through the key issues. Moyo also offers accessible explanations of historical context, commodity markets, and theory. However, lack of detailed case studies weakens both accounts.The books come at the issue from opposing perspectives. Moyo issues a clarion call to world largely ill prepared for the challenges of resource scarcity and the evolving dynamics around China's central role (2). Economy and Levi argue that the pressure on the rest of the world not so urgent. If China continues on its present course, there are two possibilities: either the Chinese economy continue to grow apace, driving energy and minerals demand upward; or China's economy will falter, gutting demand across the board and returning the market to more natural state of competition (34). Neither book addresses all the ramifications of the scenarios it paints. And indeed, the West needs to recognize its own impact on the environment and adjust its energy policies, just as China does.Western media outlets often make alarmist claims about China's resource strategy. Economy and Levi attempt to debunk such claims and to calm fears of China's seemingly unquenchable thirst for resources. While mostly successful, their desire for balance creates contradictions. For example, some Western observers frequently worry that China's voracious appetite dramatically affect commodity prices. Both books point out that civilian understanding of commodities trading remains, in Moyo's words, blurry at best (2). Moyo does the most to address this misunderstanding with clear and concise primer. Economy and Levi assert that China's real impact on commodities markets is different, more varied, and often more broadly beneficial (36) than negative caricatures suggest. Unfortunately, they don't provide enough evidence to support this claim, offering instead an inconclusive, somewhat muddled explanation. They take as an example of market that has remained stable despite heavy Chinese involvement, ignoring entirely the 2005 China-precipitated copper crisis that saw prices skyrocket after Chinese State Reserve Bureau trader took massive, unsustainable market positions.This oversight symptomatic of shared problem. By trying to cover all aspects of China's strategy, neither book offers as much detail as it should and each suffers from paucity of in-depth case studies. Economy and Levi, both members of the influential think tank Council on Foreign Relations, should have had no difficulty including more-detailed examples to support their thesis.Governmental control over China's corporations and economy an area in which the authors disagree, and highlights flaw in Moyo's thesis. Economy and Levi note that variety of factors, including financial policies and government assistance for investors, as well as the obvious overlap between financial and political ambitions, can appear very much like coordinated strategy (53). Appearances can be deceiving. There ample evidence that discipline not as tight as Moyo claims. While strong links do exist between the central government in Beijing and management of state-owned enterprises, the physical and practical distance between them--not to mention other intervening actors--can lead to divergence between policy and action. …