China–Russia strategic partnership and the oil and gas collaboration

Abstract

Over the post-Cold War era, China has been committed to intensifying its strategic partnership with Russia in an attempt to usher into the world a new order. To achieve this goal, these two states have since the end of the Cold War expanded their cooperation, including the oil and gas cooperation. The research objectives of the paper are to explore the latest development in the China–Russia oil and gas cooperation and the motivations and outcomes from a Chinese perspective. It contributes to the scholarly discussion by analyzing China’s intensified energy cooperation with Russia in the greater picture of China’s rise and examining it in a political economy way. This paper finds that the rapidly enhanced energy cooperation is a visible manifestation of China’s quest for energy security and a greater say in the world energy market. This paper concludes that China wishes to achieve three objectives by intensifying its oil and gas cooperation with Russia: this first is related to China’s sustained economic growth; the second to China’s aggravated security environment since the US ‘pivot to Asia’; the third to China’s dream of restoring its past status as a great power.