A master thesis from Aalborg University
China’s Changing Energy Diplomacy: A Source of Increased Economic Interdependence or a Continuation of Neo-Mercantilism?: Se engelske titel
Author(s)
Term
4. term
Publication year
2017
Submitted on
2017-05-14
Pages
94 pages
Abstract
Se engelske abstrakt
Over the past two and half decades, extensive literature have analysed the economic consequences of China’s energy diplomacy. However, recent geopolitical developments, such as the establishment of China’s new international institutions in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative, have reinvigorated the field of China’s energy diplomacy. It has strengthened the need for research that accounts for how these institutions might complement China’s energy diplomacy as well as their economic implications for the countries that export fossil fuels to China. This Master’s thesis researches whether China’s energy diplomacy is changing towards facilitating increased economic interdependence or if it is a continuation of Neo-Mercantilism. It assesses the concepts of strategic importance and relative power to analyse the changes in China’s energy diplomacy towards its four most important energy supplying regions as well as how China’s new international institutions can complement its energy interests. The study finds that China’s new international institutions are successful complements to China’s energy diplomacy, hence they provide China with institutional legitimacy, which increases its energy trade and investment opportunities. The analysis concludes that China’s energy diplomacy remains Neo-Mercantilist although China is increasingly facilitating economic interdependence in the regions that are of strategic importance to its national interests, while isolated resource-rich countries, with little strategic importance, are locked in a cycle of dependency towards China.
Keywords
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