A Study of China’s Energy Foreign Policy from Liberalist View : An Analysis of China’s changing patterns of Energy Foreign Policy and Domestic Energy Policy

The thesis adopts a liberalist perspective in order to analyse China’s energy foreign policy and to answer two major questions: how has China has developed its energy foreign policy in the past and what is new about China’s energy foreign policy in relation to liberalism? This is done against a backdrop of major empirical developments. Before the 1990s, China stressed energy self-sufficiency. However, in 1993, China changed from being an oil exporter and became a net importer of oil products. China's rapidly increasing demand for all kinds of energy has raised its concern with energy (mainly in reference to the oil) security as key to, China's economic development, and social stability. Energy security has already become an important strategic goal in China, leading it to carry out a series of energy foreign policy moves throughout the world. The thesis demonstrates a changing pattern of China’s energy foreign energy policy to a more liberalist and economic focus approach.