Peace Engineering in Practice: China’s Energy Diplomacy Strategy and Its Global Implications

Abstract

As the world’s largest energy importer, consumer and with the second-largest economy, China is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Massive energy imports make China a major stakeholder in the world energy trade, with significant implications and repercussions on the global economy. The desire to be energy independent and the environmental impact of fossil fuels is prompting China to diversify its energy supply, adapt its domestic energy infrastructure, and deploy renewable energy technologies on an unprecedented scale. Intending to position itself internationally, China has developed an energy diplomacy strategy while formulating international relations policies. In particular, the government emphasizes sustainable development through the large-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies, which will help build Western China while simultaneously reducing pollution across the country, elevating China to a position of global leadership in the energy sector. Intellectual property and technological capabilities developed in China can be exported worldwide, including in the regions where the population has limited or no access to energy. In addition, this strategy will have worldwide implications as it will directly or indirectly help achieve several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including clean energy, education, eradicating poverty, climate action and sustainable cities and communities. On this basis, we anticipate that China’s energy policies may have long-lasting prospects for global peace, thus constituting an interesting and relevant case study for the emerging concept of “peace engineering.”