The Structural Contradictions of Energy in the Middle East and China-Middle East Oil Cooperation

China-Middle East oil cooperation is of strategic importance to China's energy security.In a broad sense,China's energy security depends very much on the geopolitical stability in the Middle East and North Africa.As the geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa are defined as structurally contradicting,long-running and insolvable in the foreseeable future,oil supplies from these regions are inevitably unstable,which exerts direct impact not only on international energy market and oil price,but also on China's energy security itself.Despite the substantial progress made over the years in China-Middle East energy cooperation,there are still some problems and restrictive factors.Up to date,major cooperative breakthroughs are yet to be achieved in China's involvement in the exploration and production of the upstream sector in oil-rich Middle Eastern countries,like what has been done in Sudan.With this view in point,the paper tries to come up with some new thinking concerning policies or policy proposals that may help to push China-Middle Eastern energy cooperation up to a higher level.