Chinese Energy Security: The Myth of the PLAN's Frontline Status

Ryan Clarke | U.S. Army War College | 2010-08-15

This report commissioned through the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute asserts that as the Sino-U.S. relationship continues to assume greater strategic importance, energy security is a component that Washington and Beijing can simply not afford to get wrong. "As opposed to dedicating substantial resources to planning for conflict scenarios that are based upon fundamentally flawed conceptions, namely, naval blockades designed to starve China of energy resources or strategies to preempt or circumvent one of these blockades, both parties would be much better served by focusing on sound economics and distribution/refining practices," the report states. "Cooperation in this sphere is not only a much more immediate and realistic option; it also deals with the root of the dilemma, something which is clearly in the interests of the United States as well as China."