Publication

After a decade of discussions, China and Russia finally signed a $400 billion, 30-year gas deal in May 2014. But it was only a month later that world oil prices began to plummet, thus reshaping China’s outlook towards energy security and its relations with Russia. This brief’s author argues that China’s changing energy profile and the availability of cheap, alternative supplies of oil and gas now mean that Beijing 1) will not lock itself into Russia’s energy embrace, 2) will diversify its import sources, and 3) will increase its strategic reserves.