Chinese “Gas Policy” towards Russia and Turkmenistan, 2001–2012

Abstract

The ambition of the paper is to analyze the major characteristics of the
Chinese energy policy towards the most important producers of natural gas
in China’s neighborhood. The analytical perspectives of a strategic approach
to energy security and state-centric realism are used to work with case
studies of Sino-Russian and Sino-Turkmen relations from the energy
security perspective. The paper concludes that China’s energy policy
towards the given producers in Russia and Turkmenistan comes
significantly close to the selected analytical perspectives and that natural
gas has become an important part of the strategic considerations of the
Chinese political leadership. This conclusion, however, applies more to
Turkmenistan and less to Russia, as in the case of the Sino-Russian
relations, both parties fail to achieve a mutual complementarity, and
economic thinking prevails over Beijing’s strategic interests.