China's energy security, the Malacca dilemma and responses

Abstract

China's rapid economic growth has led to a huge increase in oil imports. This has raised great concern regarding its energy security because China depends on a single chokepoint, the Strait of Malacca, with nearly three-quarters of its oil imports flowing through the Strait. Given its strategic importance to China and China's little sway on the waterway, this viewpoint focuses mainly on China's concerns about and efforts at both demand and supply sides towards energy security, in particular regarding the Malacca dilemma, and puts potential Arctic oil and gas into that context.