International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Volume 7 • Number 7 • July 2017 100 Sustainable Economic Growth and Energy Security in China: Implications on Regional Economic Order Dr. Tuba Sahinoğlu Assist. Prof., Ataturk University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Dep. of Economics Müge Yüce Res. Assist. , Ataturk University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Dep. of International Relations Abstract Asian economies and China as major economic actors in terms of both regional and global economy are in the process of economic stagnation for now. Therefore, it is expected a sharp decrease in energy demand –that has continued since 1990s- of Asian economies which will be directly affected by export and investment flows. In this context, first of all, the literature on the relation between economic growth and energy consumption of China and ASEAN countries and possible consequences of these relations are assessed within the context of the data. As a result of the panel data analysis for 1990-2015 period, although the relationship between energy consumption and growth in many developed countries is weakening, the relationship in ASEAN countries is still strong. Therefore, the decline in China's energy consumption may result in a narrowing of the region. Keywords: China, ASEAN, Energy Consumption, Economic Growth, Panel Data Analysis. 1. Introduction The developing Asian economies have reached the production level of the G7 countries by producing 30% of the total GDP globally produced in 2015 (GDP share of World total PPP).The most striking structural feature of Asian economies, which have reached high economic growth rates under the Chinese leadership, is their dependence on energy consumption, which requires high fossil use of these economies. Existing social and political instabilities of Asia which accounts for 59% of the world's population(UN, WPP,2015), 31.5% of global goods imports and 32% of global goods exports (WTO, 2015) require the sustained high economic growth rates and consequently the high energy consumption. In this context, the main problem for the Asian countries which makes up about 40% of global energy consumption(IEA, 2016) alone in 2014 according to the International Energy Agency's 2016 report, is to eliminate the social, economic and environmental concerns caused by rapid economic growth and thereby sustain economic growth. The fact that Asian economies become dependent on China's economic growth is directly related to the process of economic growth in this region. In this context, Asia's prominent rise in global commodity and energy markets has basically occurred in two stages. The first phase of regional economic growth, which took place under the leadership of Japan between 1950 and 1970, completed its second phase with the rise of China in the 1990s (Wong, 2013, p.288).These developments, both of which led to Asia becoming one of the centers of global economic power, have resulted in different effects on the regional economic structure. Accordingly, the first wave under the Japanese pioneer resulted only in economic growth and regional interaction, while the second wave under the Chinese leadership resulted in economic and political dependence of the regional countries on China. This has led China to become an economically and politically active player in the Asia-Pacific region, affecting the development of regional countries (Wong, 2013, 288).Structural analyzes on the Asia-Pacific economies show that China is directly contributing to the development of many countries that are increasingly integrated into the Chinese market in Central and Southeast Asia economies as in many other regions (Coase and Wang, 2015, 332).