L'énergie, talon d'Achille de la croissance chinoise

China is now an important economic power, having enjoyed a high rate of economic growth for several years and attracted many Western firms. Its spectacular growth has allowed it to start to become an industrialized country from being a developing one. The transition period will probably last for some while; however, a certain number of problems may well emerge, in particular with regard to energy issues.
It will indeed be difficult for China to produce the energy it needs to maintain its current rate of growth and to meet the needs of its people as they adopt gradually more Western lifestyles, especially the automobile. It will be even harder if this development is to be “sustainable”.
In this article Rémi Perelman elucidates the Chinese energy situation, describing the massive increase in energy demand, the shortfall in domestic energy resources despite ambitious infrastructure programmes, and hence the risks of a growing dependence on energy supplies from abroad. In his view the key question is whether, in the medium to long term, China’s energy requirements will lead the regime to open up even more to the outside world and, as a consequence, this will bring about substantial political changes as well.