Books about China’s Energy Development, and related issues

This list of books is not in any way intended to be comprehensive. It is is a small selection of books that are relatively easily accessible to someone with an interest in China and energy, but not with a strong scholarly background in this field. It is important to bear in mind, as with the articles included on this site, that there is comparatively little material available in English language that is specifically relevant to energy, as most books on the topic of energy in China, not surprisingly, have been written in Chinese. It is also important to add that of the few English language books that are available, many are prohibitively expensive. Others are out of print, or hard to find, with just a few second-hand copies being available from some book dealer or another, but are likely to be found in good libraries. Others, especially material relating to historical developments, such as the Daqing oilfield, may be closely intertwined with political propaganda, making it extremely hard for someone who is not a specialist in Chinese history and energy, and who does not read Chinese, to be able to separate myth from reality. Similar provisos and propaganda warnings in relation to the publication on energy security written US-based or US-led security institutions, such as the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, which may also contain propaganda in the form of over simplistic and somewhat crude north-American or West European “China bashing”.

This section includes books on contemporary energy development in China, including projections about how it may develop in the future. It also contains books that analyze the history of energy development in China, including how the sector developed through key historical periods of the 20th Century, since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. This includes the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the period in which China “opened up to the world”. This also includes discussion of China’s past efforts at developing small scale decentralised energy production and consumption systems, which although are not currently key to China’s energy development, are nonetheless central to understanding the material basis from which China’s current developments have evolved.

The most recent books are listed at the top of each section, and the oldest at the bottom.

Energy in general, in historical perspective

  • Kang Wu, Energy Economy in China: Policy Imperatives, Market Dynamics and Regional Developments, World Scientific Publishing Co, Singapore, 2013, http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/energy-economy-in-china-policy-imperatives-market-dynamics-and-regional-developments  The key subjects of the book are policy imperatives, market dynamics, and regional developments concerning oil and gas, as well as energy a a whole in China. In addition to national policies and issues, the objective of this book is to study China’s regional oil and gas demand, supply and trade, energy balances, and economic development, with projections up till 2030. Particular emphasis will be given to challenges facing the Chinese government in ensuring future oil supplies, pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, energy security, downstream oil refining sector developments, the use of natural gas for power generation, and oil and gas related environmental issues. The impact of China’s oil and gas sector developments, market dynamics, rising imports, and overseas investment on the Asia-Pacific region and the word at large are examined. Energy Economy in China also reviews current and future oil refining projects, gas pipelines, LNG import terminals, and emerging new markets in China over the next fifteen years.
  • Jiang Zemin, Research on Energy Issues in China, Academic Press, September 2009. http://www.amazon.com/RESEARCH-ON-ENERGY-ISSUES-CHINA/dp/0123786193  China’s rapid economic expansion raises questions internally and externally about how it will acquire the energy it needs to sustain growth. Currently, it is the largest producer and consumer of coal; how much will it continue to rely on its abundant natural resource in the face of increasing environmental concerns? Will it embrace new clean coal technologies developed by others or invest in its own? Currently it imports 50 per cent of the oil it consumes; will it invest in technologies that scrub the ocean floor for petroleum deposits? Will it develop new distribution technologies to bring its natural gas reserves closer to population centers? What role will conservation play? And how will China relate to the rest of the international community as it addresses these critical issues. “Research on Energy Issues In China” presents one prominent insider’s view of China’s key energy issues and his strategy for addressing them. A collection of papers authored by Jiang Zemin, former president of the People’s Republic of China, it appears here in English for the first time. Jiang’s message is an exhortation to the Chinese to invest in science and technology, and research and development, to ensure the steady supply of energy so crucial for sustaining and driving development. He outlines this energy strategy for China: ‘we need to steadfastly conserve energy, use it efficiently, diversify development, keep the environment clean, be technology driven and cooperate internationally in order to establish a system of energy production, distribution and consumption that is highly efficient, uses advanced technology, produces few pollutant, has minimal impact on the ecosystem, and provides a steady and secure energy supply’. Within ten to twenty years, China may well be the world’s largest energy consumption and supply system. This volume offers policy makers, energy industry analysts, researchers, and investors an inside view of how it plans to get there. It compares China’s current energy situation with the developed world. It details specific challenges and opportunities in China with respect to coal, oil, nuclear, natural gas, solar, biomass, hydrogen, geothermal, wind, and ocean. It presents an eight point energy development policy. It provides a guide to China’s future investment in research and development.
  • Andrews-Speed, P. The Governance of Energy in China: Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy, Palgrave-Macmillan,  2012 http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=479498  China is both the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and the country with the greatest challenge to constrain the level of its emissions. The way in which energy is governed in China is an important factor driving its rising level of carbon dioxide emissions. Andrews-Speed analyses the nature of energy governance in China by combining ideas relating to transition management with the theories of new institutional economics and historical institutionalism. This provides a framework for examining the institutions of energy governance and for identifying factors which assist or constrain the country’s path to a low-carbon economy. The author emphasises the importance of elaborating the adaptive capacity of these institutions.
  • Andrews-Speed, P. (2004) Energy Policy and Regulation in the People’s Republic of China, The Hague: Kluwer Law International http://www.aspenpublishers.com/Product.asp?catalog_name=Aspen&product_id=9041122338 China is the world’s second largest consumer of commercial energy and is therefore a significant contributor to atmospheric pollution. It is becoming a major player in global and regional markets for energy products, services and investment. This book provides an overview of the formulation and implementation of energy policy in China. Part One provides background information on China’s energy sector. Part Two examines the nature of China’s energy policy and of the policy-making process, with examples drawn from the coal and natural gas sectors, as well as from the government’s drive to promote energy conservation and energy efficiency. Part Three focuses on recent efforts to reform the energy sector in China and to regulate it more effectively, paying particular attention to the electrical power sector and to small-scale coal mines. Part Four evaluates, from the perspective of the citizen, policy relating to the electrical power sector and to the closure of small-scale coal mines. Part Five addresses the international dimensions of China’s energy policy, with accounts of both inward and outward investment, and of the international political implications.
  • Andrews-Speed, P. Xuanli Liao and Roland Dannreuther, The Strategic Implications of China’s Energy Needs (Adelphi Paper 346, 2002) China is frequently described as a threat to regional and global stability and its rapidly rising demand for imported energy is seen as one cause of this threat. This book shows that domestic politics and foreign policy have both played a part in China’s recent major energy policy decisions. However, China’s increasing involvement in the global energy markets can be seen as an opportunity to enhance cooperation and interdependence rather than as a threat.
  • Erica Strecker Downs, Chinas Quest for Energy Security, RAND, 2000; http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1244.html China’s two decades of rapid economic growth have fueled a demand for energy that has outstripped domestic sources of supply. China became a net oil importer in 1993, and the country’s dependence on energy imports is expected to continue to grow over the next 20 years, when it is likely to import some 60 percent of its oil and at least 30 percent of its natural gas. China thus is having to abandon its traditional goal of energy self-sufficiency — brought about by a fear of strategic vulnerability — and look abroad for resources. This study looks at the measures that China is taking to achieve energy security and the motivations behind those measures. It considers China’s investment in overseas oil exploration and development projects, interest in transnational oil pipelines, plans for a strategic petroleum reserve, expansion of refineries to process crude supplies from the Middle East, development of the natural gas industry, and gradual opening of onshore drilling areas to foreign oil companies. The author concludes that these activities are designed, in part, to reduce the vulnerability of China’s energy supply to U.S. power. China’s international oil and gas investments, however, are unlikely to bring China the energy security it desires. China is likely to remain reliant on U.S. protection of the sea-lanes that bring the country most of its energy imports.
  • McElroy, Michael B. , Nielson, Chris P. and Lydon, Peter (eds) Energizing China: Reconciling Environmental Protection and Economic Growth, Harvard University Press, Boston, 1998 http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674253292 As China develops its booming, fossil fuel-powered economy, is it taking lessons from the history of Western industrialization and the unforeseen environmental harms that accompanied it? Given the risks of climate change, is there an imperative, shared responsibility to help China respond to the environmental effects of its coal dependence? By linking global hazards to local air pollution concerns–from indoor stove smoke to burgeoning ground-level ozone–this volume of eighteen studies seeks integrated strategies to address simultaneously a range of harmful emissions. Counterbalancing the scientific inquiry are key chapters on China’s unique legal, institutional, political, and cultural factors in effective pollution control. Energizing China, the stage-setting publication of an ongoing program of Harvard-China research collaboration, is distinguished by its conceptual breadth and spirit of exchange. Its contributors include twenty-two Western and seventeen Chinese scholars with a disciplinary reach that includes science, public health, engineering, economics, public policy, law, business, and China studies.
  • Xu Yi-Chong (ed) The      Political Economy of State-owned Enterprises in China and India,  Palgrave-Macmillan 2012 http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=536925      China and India are drawing attention, both for their fast economic growth      but also their idiosyncratic patterns of development. They have not      followed the same development path as those which had industrialised in      the 19th and first half of the 20th century; neither have they trotted      along exactly the same route as those so-called ‘Asian-tigers’. One      stand-out feature of their development, however, is their state-owned      enterprises or public sector, which continue to dominate strategic      sectors. Often holding monopolistic or oligopolistic positions, they are      among the largest employers in both countries and have their activities      across vast geographical areas in most provinces as they expand into the      global market. They are seen as the exemplars of the Chinese ‘Red      Capitalism’, the ‘capindialism’ or Indian ‘state-backed capitalism’. This      book discusses ten SOEs in China and India, focusing on institutional,      operational and sustainable questions in order to help us better      understand the debate over the development paths and ‘varieties of      capitalism’. The book focuses on key strategic sectors, including energy      (coal, oil, and electricity).
  • Manochehr Dorraj and Carrie Liu Currier, China’s Energy Relations with the Developing World, Bloomsbury      Academic Publishers, 2011 http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/chinas-energy-relations-with-the-developing-world-9781441141040/     
  • Thrassy N. Marketos, China’s      Energy Geopolitics: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Central Asia,      Routledge, 2009 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415586177/      China’s need for energy has become a driving factor in contemporary      world politics and a precondition for sustaining China’s continuing high      economic growth. Accordingly, Chinese energy policy has been a political      and strategic rather than market-driven policy. This book focuses on the      need of a stable and secure investment environment which is necessary for      the energy provision of China from the Central Asian states.The author argues that the      institutionalization of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (S.C.O.),      the Friendship and Cooperation Treaty between Russia and China and Chinese      bilateral agreements with individual Central Asian states present an      avenue and a framework of stability in which pipeline construction can      commence. With the backing of the US in the aftermath of the September 11,      2001 terrorist attacks, Chinese involvement in the region has now been      expanding. However, in order to stabilize the region for Chinese      investment in energy resources, the author states that the US needs to be      present in the region and that a strategic framework of cooperation      between Russia, China and the US has to be developed
  • Xiannuan Liu, Chinas Energy Strategy: Economic Structure, Technological Choices, and Energy Consumption (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996); http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Energy-Strategy-Technological-Consumption/dp/product-description/B000FMRR4U  China has reduced the energy intensity of its economy dramatically. This book explores how this reduction was achieved and determines the major sources of energy savings. Using extensive data, the author examines the impacts of technological and structural changes on energy consumption and identifies the factors that were primarily responsible for the energy-efficiency improvements.
  • James P. Dorian and David G.Fridley (eds), Westview Press, Boulder and London, 1988.  China’s Energy and Mineral Industries: Current Perspectives http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-energy-mineral-industries-perspectives/dp/0813375665 This book covers in detail China’s energy development in relation to coal and oil (as well as other non-energy mineral resources) during the period just after China’s first “opening up”, and includes detailed information about high level negotiations with foreign governments and multinational energy companies. The list of authors are high level industrialists and policy makers from China and the USA, offering an extremely informative insight into how these relationships developed, and the goals behind them.
  • James P. Dorian, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994 Minerals, Energy and Economic Development in China http://www.amazon.co.uk/Minerals-Energy-Economic-Development-China/dp/0198287445 China possesses one of the world’s largest mining industries. Since 1949, minerals and energy have played a critical role in the economic development of the nation. This volume presents a comprehensive analysis of the Chinese mining industry: its history, practices, organizational structure, performance criteria and constraints. The author argues that the mining industry in China has been instrumental in the nation’s economic expansion, and analyzes its possible future following various industrial reforms.
  • Tai Hwan Lee, Politics of energy policy in post-Mao China, Asiatic Research Center, Korea University,1995 http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=1793&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1#Green_Energy, http://www.amazon.com/Politics-energy-policy-post-Mao-China/dp/B0006FCYS0/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361009684&sr=1-3&keywords=Tai+Hwan+Lee  This dissertation examines the institutional context of policy making and the content of policies in order to illuminate one aspect of the policy process by studying actual policies in a single industrial sector (energy) in one country (China). The unit of analysis is not the country as a whole or the national economic policy, but rather one industrial policy arena and the national and the relevant sub-national level institutions, including the central and state apparatus and the industrial enterprises. The study seeks answers to such questions as: (1) What is the pattern of continuity and change in energy policy? (2) What are the conditions, issues, and circumstances under which political factors are more important than economic and technical factors in energy policy making? (3) Why does there exist a gap between policy pronouncement and outcomes? (4) How do energy policy outcomes influence politics? In order to describe and analyze how and why policy changes occur in the energy sector, this study examines policy pronouncements, implementation, and outcomes in post-Mao China with respect to six policy issues: (1) capital construction investment, (2) management, (3) prices, (4) foreign investment, (5) energy export, and (6) technology transfer. The policy changes tend to go hand in hand with changes in the institutional context. In order to analyze context change, it is necessary to examine organizational and personnel changes, as well as the changing relationships between state and enterprise, and between the center and the province. Case studies in each energy sector were made. The findings show that: (1) No cyclical patterns nor any simple linear developments were found. (2) In post-Mao China, policy outcomes became more important in policy-making and politics than in Maoist China. (3) The policy impacts on politics became most discernable in investment and management policy issues. And (4) policy changes influenced institutional changes and vice versa. Based on these findings, it can be hypothesized that the policy process in energy is becoming less politicized. It has also become clear that the policy process differs by issue and over time.
  • Lu, Yingzhong, 1993, Fueling One Billion: an Insider’s Story of Chinese Energy Policy Development , Rockville, MD: Washington Institute Press d/publisher/washington_institute_press.html 
  • Vaclav Smil Praeger Publishers Inc, 1977 China’s Energy: Achievements, Problems, Prospects http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Energy-Achievements-Problems-Prospects/dp/0275230503/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324970426&sr=1-1  
  • Vaclav Smil 1988 M E Sharpe Inc Energy in China’s Modernization: Advances and Limitations http://www.amazon.com/Energy-Chinas-Modernization-Advances-Limitations/dp/0873324234/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324970644&sr=1-1
  • Vaclav Smil, Routledge 2003, China’s past, China’s future: energy, food, environment http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Future-Transformations-Critical-Scholarship/dp/0415314992/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1324971524&sr=8-3 China has a population of 1.3 billion people which puts strain on her natural resources. This volume, by one of the leading scholars on the earth’s biosphere, is the result of a lifetime of study, and provides the fullest account yet of the environmental challenges that China faces. The author examines China’s energy resources, their uses, impacts and prospects, from the 1970s oil crisis to the time of writing, before analysing the key question of how China can best produce enough food to feed its enormous population.
  • Original publisher: Washington, D.C. : Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, 2003. OCLC Number: (OCoLC)54113738 Oil for the lamps of China: Beijing’s 21st-century search for energy http://www.amazon.com/Oil-lamps-China-Beijings-21st-century/dp/1234252066/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353408019&sr=1-3&keywords=Oil+for+the+Lamps+of+China%3A++Beijing%27s+21st-century+search+for

 

The following sections include sector-by-sector publications

Hydropower

  • Andrew Mertha, Cornell University Press, Ithaca & London, 2010 edition, China’s Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100018480 Today opponents of large-scale dam projects in China, rather than being greeted with indifference or repression, are part of the hydropower policymaking process itself. What accounts for this dramatic change in this critical policy area surrounding China’s insatiable quest for energy? In China’s Water Warriors, Andrew C. Mertha argues that as China has become increasingly market driven, decentralized, and politically heterogeneous, the control and management of water has transformed from an unquestioned economic imperative to a lightning rod of bureaucratic infighting, societal opposition, and open protest.
  • Xie Chaoping,  2010, Self-published Great Migration . This self-funded book discloses the predicament of migrants and the corruption of officials during relocations to make way for the Sanmen Gorge dam in the 1950s. The author was detained for 30 days in 2010.
  • Rural Hydropower and Electrification in China, Hangzhou Regional (Asia-Pacific) Center for Small Hydropower, 2009. Beijing: China WaterPower Press. http://www.amazon.com/Rural-Hydropower-Electrification-China-second/dp/7508464575/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361031188&sr=1-2&keywords=Rural+Hydropower+and+Electrification+in+China nglish& Chinese Rural Hydropower and Electrification in China(Second Edition) Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China over 50 years ago, and particularly since the country’s opening up and reform period, the Chinese government has been stressing the development of SHP, small hydropower, a clean, renewable energy which plays a significant role in supplying energy for both rural production and daily life, poverty alleviation, environmental improvement, promotion of the local economy and social progress. In the past 20 years, the attention given to hydropower and rural electrification by the world community has also been increasing. A number of international conferences, including the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002 and the Third World Water Forum held in Kyoto, Japan in March 2003, have appealed for more utilization of all renewable energy sources, including hydropower. A new era of greater development for this thriving green energy has come.
  • Small Hydro Power in China, Hangzhou Regional Centre/Practical Action, Dec 1985, http://www.amazon.com/Small-Hydro-Power-In-China/dp/094668846X/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361030940&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=Small+Hydro+Power%3A+China%27s+Practice An account of how the Chinese achieved a long-term programme to provide rural areas with electricity. Contains lessons for other countries faced with energy provision problems.
  • Tong Jiandong, Small Hydro Power: China’s Practice, China WaterPower Press, 2004

 

Coal

  • Tim Wright, The Political Economy of the Chinese Coal Industry:  Black Gold and Blood-Stained Coal, Routledge, 2011, http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415493284/ Coal mining is one of China’s largest industries, and provides an excellent case study through which to consider the broader issues of China’s transition from socialism to capitalism, focussing on the shift to a market economy, the rise of rural industry and the situation of China’s working class.  Coal was one of the pillars of the planned economy but, the author argues, its shift to market-based operations has been protracted and difficult, particularly in moving from the artificially low prices of the planned economy to market prescribed prices – a change that had a major impact on the industry’s financial performance. The book goes on to considers the growth of small rural coal mines as part of the Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) programme; these small mines have brought prosperity to areas where small manufacturing enterprises are not competitive, but at the same time have been the cause of many social and environmental problems. It also examines the situation of coal miners – arguably one the most vulnerable segments of the Chinese working class – under socialism and under capitalism, paying particular attention to the issue of work safety and coal mine disasters. The book provides a comprehensive and coherent treatment of these issues from the establishment of the People’s Republic up to 2010.
  • Tim Wright, Coal Mining in China’s Economy and Society 1895-1937, Cambridge University Press, 2009,  http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item2426149/Coal%20Mining%20in%20China%27s%20Economy%20and%20Society%201895-1937/?site_locale=en_GB This book provides an important contribution to the economic history of modern China. It examines the history of the coal mining industry – one of China’s largest and most important – from the beginnings of modernisation around 1895 to the start of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. It addresses questions of both economic and socio-political history and contributes to our knowledge of many aspects of early twentieth-century Chinese history. It examines the slow growth of the modern sector of the Chinese economy and considers the effects of foreign investment and ownership, the supply of capital, the technology of production, the availability of local entrepreneurship and compares the evolution of the Chinese coal industry with development elsewhere. This book will be of interest to those concerned with the problems of industrial growth in general as well as to specialists on modern China.
  • Huaichuan Rui, Globalization, Transition and Development in China: The Case of the Coal Industry, RoutledgeCurzon, 2005, http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415654999/ Based on extensive original research, Globalisation, Transition and Development in China explains China’s development strategy and its underlying forces, and the success of this strategy. It examines China’s gradualist approach which emphasizes development first and regards transition and globalization as secondary, enacting liberalization of domestic markets and integration into the world economy in a paced way, avoiding dramatic changes which might impede or even reverse development, and argues that this approach is broadly correct. It considers China’s failures, including the failure to build large globally competitive corporations despite the intention to do this, and shows how China’s economic strategy has been implemented in detail with a case study of the large and important coal industry.
  • Elspeth Thompson, The Chinese Coal Industry: An Economic History, Routledge, 2002 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780700717279/   The coal industry has been and continues to be of critical importance for China’s economic modernization. With its huge labour force, country-wide infrastructure, and vital strategic importance for the economy, the industry presents special problems for reformers, and epitomises the problems of reform in the state industrial sector as a whole. This book examines the changes in the structure and operation of the Chinese coal industry from the mid-19th century to the present, concentrating on the years of reform. Although the focus is on the economics of the industry, the book also provides many insights into China’s socio-political development.
  • K. Wang, Controlling Factors in the Future Development of the Chinese Coal Industry, New York: Kings Crew Press (1947) http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015063978442;view=1up;seq=5, reissued by Literary Licensing, LLC in 2013  http://www.amazon.com/Controlling-Factors-Development-Chinese-Industry/dp/1258542781/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377010928&sr=1-1&keywords=Controlling+Factors+in+the+Future+Development+of+the+Chinese+Coal+Industry

Electric Power

  • Xu, Yi-Chong, Electricity Reform in China, India and Russia, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004, http://www.e-elgar.co.uk/bookentry_main.lasso?id=3200&breadcrumlink=&breadcrum=&sub_values=&site_Bus_Man=&site_dev=&site_eco=&site_env_eco=&site_inn_tech=&site_int_pol=&site_law=&site_pub_soc=
    Examining the reform and restructuring of the electricity industry in China, India and Russia, this book explores the way that local conditions and institutions shape the commitment, direction and speed of public utility reform in the three countries. It questions the validity of the argument that one model for electricity reforms will work in all countries, on the grounds that the industry is the same everywhere, by examining the World Bank’s involvement in economic reforms in developing and transition economies.
  • Xu, Yi-Chong. Powering China: Reforming the Electric Power Industry in China, Ashgate, 2002, http://www.amazon.com/Powering-China-Reforming-Electric-Industry/dp/0754622517/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361029361&sr=1-1&keywords=Powering+China%3A+Reforming+the+Electric+Power+Industry+in+China   This study of the Chinese electric power industry examines the ownership and the restructuring of the industry. The reform of the electric power industry is also seen as part of the wider economic development that has been taking place in China, thus providing fresh perspectives on the changes taking place in both the economy and society more generally. Presenting a wealth of extensive research on the subject, the book elucidates the power struggle between political and bureaucratic elite and explains the sensitive and volatile relationship between the central and provincial government against an increasingly complex global background.
  • World Bank, Disussion Paper No 406, Zhao, Jianping, February 2000 The Private Sector and Power Generation in China  http://elibrary.worldbank.org/content/book/9780821346563   This paper discusses issues and problems related to private sector involvement in China’s power section in two parts. The first part consists of a summary of the conference held in Beijing June 22-23, 1999. It stresses that, despite the problems encountered and the impact of the Asian economic and financial crisis, China’s power sector remains attractive to investors because of its size, growth potential, and the improving business and regulatory environments. The discussion highlighted the need for more transparency in the approval proves as well as improving creditworthiness of power offtakers. The second part, a paper on private power development in China, assesses the current status and future prospects of private sector involvement in China’s power sector. It outlines the key characteristics and indicates some future developments for the different forms of private sector participation that have emerged and developed since the early 1980s. It finally provides a review of some concerns voiced by investors and a preliminary assessment of their impact on future investments.
  • World Bank, Discussion Paper, China: Power Sector Regulation in a Socialist Market Economy, 1998 http://www.amazon.co.uk/China-Regulation-Socialist-Economy-Discussion/dp/0821339133

Oil

  • Li, Minqi Peak Oil, Climate Change, and the Limits to China’s Economic Growth, (Routledge Studies in Ecological Economics, Feb 11, 2014) http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415637541/  Modern economic growth has depended on the massive expansion of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) consumption. These fuels are non-renewable resources and will eventually be depleted while their consumption leads to emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that have threatened to bring about unprecedented global climate catastrophe. In recent years, China has overtaken the US to become the world’s largest energy consumer and greenhouse gas emitter. Its energy consumption is dominated by coal and this now accounts for one quarter of the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, China is set to become the world’s largest oil importer in the next decade. Therefore, a study of China’s energy path and likely impacts is essential for understanding the future of global energy and the likelihood of climate stabilization.This book analyses energy development in the broader context of economic and social changes, and evaluates the implications of ecological limits to growth on the economic system whilst arguing that the existing capitalist system is fundamentally incompatible with ecological sustainability. The Chinese context is naturally central to this.
  • Andrews-Speed, P. and Roland Dannreuther, China,      Oil and Global Politics, Routledge, 2013 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415838313/       China’s rapid economic growth      has led to a huge increase in its domestic energy needs. This book      provides a critical overview of how China’s growing need for oil imports      is shaping its international economic and diplomatic strategy and how this      affects global political relations and behaviour. Part One is focused on the domestic drivers of energy policy: it      provides a systematic account of recent trends in China’s energy sector and      assesses the context and processes of energy policy making, and concludes      by showing how and why China’s oil industry has spread across the world in      the last fifteen years. Part Two analyses the political and foreign policy      implications of this energy-driven expansion and the challenges this     potentially poses for China’s integration into the international system.      It examines a number of factors linked to this integration in the energy      field, including the unpredictabilities of internal policymaking; China’s      determination to promote its own critical national interests, and the      general ambition of the Chinese leadership to integrate with the      international system on its own terms and at its own speed. The highly      topical book draws together the various dimensions of China’s      international energy strategy, and provides insights into the impact of      this on China’s growing international presence in various parts of the      world.
  • Lim Tai Wei, World Scientific, Singapore, Series on Contemporary China, Volume 21, 2010, Oil and Gas in China: The New Energy Superpower’s Relations with its Region http://www.worldscibooks.com/eastasianstudies/7365.html This book looks at the emergence of China as a major importer and consumer of energy as well as examines contemporary issues within the Chinese oil industry. As China benefits from globalization, what is the impact on China’s relations with countries in its neighbouring region when it seeks more oil importation from overseas sources? China’s industrial growth in the Pan Pearl River Delta Region is outstripping its oil supply and China is turning to the ASEAN countries connected to its Pearl River tributaries to form a Pan region that acts both as a conduit for oil supply from other sources as well as the supply source itself.
  • Lim Tai Wei, World Scientific, Singapore, Series on Contemporary China, Volume 18, 2010, Oil in China: From Self Reliance to Internationalization http://www.worldscibooks.com/eastasianstudies/7315.html This book examines the political and conceptual metamorphosis of China’s oil industry from self-reliance to internationalization. Through the empirical case study of Daqing, the premiere oilfield of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for most of the postwar period and a symbol of industrialization as well as self-reliance, key historical developmental concepts and events are analyzed. Japan’s role in stimulating the development of the China’s oil industry will also be highlighted as the Japanese government and its business sectors emerged as a supplier of technology and equipment to the Chinese oil industry as well as China’s first major oil customer in the early internationalization phase of the PRC’s oil industry.
  • Lim Tai Wei, China’s Quest for Self-Reliance in Oil: The Story of Fushun, Yumen, and Daqing, Edwin Mellen Press,  2009, http://mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=7544&pc=9   This title examines competing views of geopolitical influence on the source, continuity, and change in the development of Chinese oil production. This project looks at how Fushun and Yumen’s equipment, infrastructure and trained manpower were contributive to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) efforts in discovering and exploiting Daqing. To show the forms of continuity in the quest for self-reliance, particular attention is given to the three decades between 1931, with the annexation of Manchuria and the buildup of Fushun’s oil shale facilities that would be useful for the postwar oil industry in China.This title also analyzes important events in 1963, when Daqing achieved the ultimate goal of the Chinese oil industry: self-reliance. This periodization is crucial in studying the Chinese oil industry’s transition through different regimes from Japanese-occupied Fushun/wartime Nationalist Yumen to the founding of the PRC oil industry, and the establishment of Daqing and oil self-reliance.
  • Kambara, T. and C. Howe, China and the Global Energy Crisis: Development and Prospects for China’s Oil and Natural Gas, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, 2007 http://www.e-elgar.co.uk/Bookentry_DESCRIPTION.lasso?currency=US&id=12522 s development and its global meaning.
  • Jin Zhang, Catch-up and Competitiveness in China: The Case of Large Firms in the Oil Industry, Routledge, 2004, http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415333214/ This book examines the role of corporate structure, including the role of corporate headquarters, in the success of large firms. It considers these issues in relation to large global corporations, thereby providing a ‘benchmark’, which is then used as a contrast in a discussion of corporate structure and the role of corporate headquarters within large Chinese firms, many of which have evolved from former government ministries. It includes a detailed case-study of firms in the crucially important oil and petro-chemical sector. Overall, the book shows what a hugely competitive battle China’s emerging ‘national champions’ face with their global competitors, and puts forward policy implications both for large Chinese firms and for the Chinese government concerning how business systems should be reformed further still in order to construct globally competitive large industrial corporations.
  • Mark J. Valencia, Jon M. Van Dyke, and Lowell A. Ludwig, Sharing the Resources of the South China Sea (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999); http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-1155-9780824818814.aspx   The South China Sea disputes continue to confuse and confound policymakers. All the countries bordering directly on this sea – China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei – have claimed some or all of the tiny, but strategically located, Spratly Islets and some or all of the maritime space and its resources. All of these claims have serious weaknesses under the principles of international law that govern these issues. This book offers several possible regional interim solutions to the South China Sea disputes. All of the national claims to both islands and ocean space in the region have weaknesses. An interim solution is urgently needed because the status quo is dangerous and unstable, because of unilateral actions by the claimants and continuing opportunities for involvement by outside powers. Division or allocation of the features and ocean space among the competing claimants seem unfeasible because of their sharp disagreements over the boundaries of the area in dispute as well as what would constitute an appropriate equitable division. The authors survey the principles that appear to guide the nations of the South China Sea region in their regional relations, and they identify the appropriate objectives of a regional resource authority. They also identify the political realities of the region, which serve as constraints on the design of a regime. The authors propose the creation of a regional multilateral resource management body as a solution to reduce the tension currently rife in the region. The options presented serve as illustrations designed to stimulate constructive discussion on a comprehensive multilateral interim solution to these difficult and dangerous disputes. Sharing the Resources of the South China Sea will be of interest to international decision-makers, negotiators, and academics desirous of a peaceful solution to these disputes.
  • Mark J. Valencia, Southeast Asian Seas: Oil Under Troubled Waters: Hydrocarbon Potential, Jurisdictional Issues, and International Relations (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986) http://www.amazon.com/South-East-Asian-Seas-Jurisdictional-International/dp/0195826450  that have arisen with respect to the local national interests and external powers such as India, Australia, and China.
  • Selig S. Harrison,China, Asia, and Oil: Conflict Ahead? (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977); http://www.amazon.co.uk/China-oil-Asia-conflict-ahead/dp/0231043791
  • Kong, B.,  China’s International Petroleum      Strategy, Praeger Security International, 2010  In the past 15 years, China has grown      fast from a net exporter of oil into the world’s second largest importer,      trailing only the United States. In that time, China’s nationalized oil      companies have expanded aggressively overseas, while the Chinese      government engages in active petroleum diplomacy, all to make sure the      world’s largest country can meet its growing demand for oil. This      exhaustive treatment of China’s international petroleum policy examines      the cogovernance of China’s petroleum sector by its government and      national oil companies, as they work at loggerheads  with each other, to shape such key      policies as overseas investment, domestic price caps, and import controls      in the face of their country’s exploding demand for oil. Imported oil      already accounts for half of China’s total consumption and is forecast to      increase to 80 percent by 2030. This book focuses on six major issues: the      evolution of China’s petroleum governance regime, the making of China’s      international petroleum policy, the international expansion of China’s      national oil companies, the challenges confronting Chinese oil companies      on the international petroleum chessboard, Beijing’s petroleum diplomacy,      implications of China’s petroleum policy. Each chapter describes the      historical context of a particular issue, the key players, and the      structures and processes through which policy is developed and      implemented.
  • The National Conference on Learning from Taching in Industry, Selected Documents, Peking Foreign Language Press, 1977  http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=The+National+Conference+on+Learning+From+Taching+in+Industry+Selected+Documents  
  • Leslie W.Chan, Contemporary China Press, Australian National University Press 1974 The Taching Oilfield: A Maoist Model for Economic Development http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1305256 history of Taching, China’s first major oilfield, whose development played a key role in enabling China to become self-reliant in oil production. The industrial development was held up as an example for other industries to follow in China.
  • Peking Foreign Languages Press, 1972, Taching: Red Banner on China’s Industrial Front http://www.bibliopolis.com/main/books/bol48_79898.html An extremely interesting, if slightly propagandistic examination of the history of Taching, China’s first major oilfield, whose development played a key role in enabling China to become self-reliant in oil production. The industrial development was held up as an example for other industries to follow in China.
  • Pacific Century Press (June 2002) (originally  published in 1933) Alice Tisdale Hobart Oil for the Lamps of China. Oil for the Lamps of China (1934) was a best-selling novel when it was first published. The hero of the story is a keen, young American businessman who wants to bring “light” and progress to China in the form of oil and oil lamps, but who is caught between Chinese revolutionary nationalism in the 1920s and the heartless American corporation which has built his career.  The title became a catch phrase for expansive American dreams of the vast China market even though the novel itself, written at the beginning of the Great Depression, was skeptical of large business and any supposed American ability to improve China.

Nuclear

  • Xu Yi-Chong, The Politics of Nuclear Energy in China, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010 http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=358353  China is going nuclear. It is planning to increase its nuclear generation capacity by building two or three nuclear power plants every year for the next ten years, as one step towards meeting its rapidly rising energy demand. Will China be able to expand its nuclear capacity sufficiently and quickly enough to beat the urgent twin challenges it faces – energy security and climate change? If history is the judge, perhaps not. The Politics of Nuclear Energy in China seeks to provide an answer to this question by examining the forces in China that have shaped its nuclear energy development. It highlights the economic, technical, environmental and, most importantly, political challenges facing nuclear energy development in China.