Understanding China’s Global Energy Strategy Karen Smith Stegen This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Emerald in the International Journal of Emerging Markets, available online: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJoEM-04-2014-0059?af=R. To cite this article: Karen Smith Stegen (2015): Understanding China’s global energy strategy, International Journal of Emerging Markets, 10:2, 194 – 208. Abstract: As China’s economy has expanded, so has its need for energy. Consequently, China has increased its domestic energy capacities and developed import strategies for oil and gas. In its international energy activities, China has progressed through a series of stages. The purpose of this paper is to focus on China’s latest stage: creating an overland energy network, supplied primarily by Central Asia’s Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and becoming the energy hub of an integrated Asian market – China’s recent “Silk Road” proposal. This paper also examines the impact of Chinese energy investments on the prospects of Central Asian energy producers transitioning to emerging markets. Keywords: developing countries, emerging markets, China, Central Asia, Silk Road, Energy Politics 1. Introduction Accompanying China’s stunning economic growth in recent years has been an equally stunning rise in its energy demand. From the mid-1960s until 1993, China was energy self sufficient. By 2010, however, China had become the world’s largest energy consumer and in 2012 had to import 57% of its oil (CNPC News, 2012). In 2014, China is expected to surpass the United States (US) as the world’s largest net oil importer; and, by 2020, it will need to import 66 percent of its total oil requirements (US EIA, 2014). In recognition of its looming reliance on oil imports and its burgeoning environmental problems, China would like to curtail its oil and coal consumption and expand the role of natural gas in its economy. Since its first liquid natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal became operational in 2006, China’s gas imports have rapidly risen and are projected to grow 5 percent annually. China’s consumption of natural gas reached 169 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) in 2013, accounting for 5.9 percent of