Deepen Sino-American Cooperation on Energy

[ 40 ] asia policy “The new U.S. president needs to lay the foundation for a new type of international energy public diplomacy, one that mobilizes consumers in China and the United States for consumption that is truly sustainable.” • Deepen Sino-American Cooperation on Energy Steven W. Lewis China is an increasingly important partner in solving the United States’ own energy and environmental problems. The new president should build upon notable recent achievements in Sino-U.S. energy cooperation, mainly those directed toward stabilizing energy supplies and promoting energy efficiency in manufacturing. But he must also start the more difficult and more long-term task of mobilizing and incentivizing local governments and individual consumers to work together to solve shared energy problems. China and the United States have much freedom to cooperate. Contrary to the sensationalistic and nationalistic rhetoric heard in U.S. and Chinese news media, the two nations are not major competitors for global energy supplies. Both economies are mainly powered by domestic coal— constituting more than 70% of primary energy—and both are making significant investments in such alternative and renewable energy sources as hydroelectric, solar, wind, and nuclear power. It is only the transportation sectors in the United States and China that remain dependent on global oil markets. In recent years the United States and its Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) partners have been discussing how to bring the future large consumers—China and India—into the oil supply stabilization arrangements of the International Energy Agency (IEA). The new U.S. administration should continue to support these multilateral negotiations. China and other Asian countries need to have market access to diverse supplies of oil and gas—Asian countries currently receive relatively little oil and gas from Latin America, Russia, and Africa. They also need to build adequate strategic petroleum and product reserves and need to participate in international emergency release arrangements. In recent years China has experienced gasoline shortages in the economically vibrant and steven w. lewis is a Fellow in Asian Studies at James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, an Associate Fellow at Asia Society International, and Professor at Rice University. He can be reached at . [ 41 ] special roundtable • advising the new u.s. president yet resource-poor southern regions because the country has not yet built stockpiles sufficient to see it through short-term disruptions in supply. The United States and other IEA nations must continue to work with the Chinese government to make sure China does not become an aggressive seeker of overseas oil supplies or even a panic buyer in world energy markets. At the fourth meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue in June 2008, officials from both countries created the U.S.-China Ten Year Energy and Environment Cooperation Framework. Five task forces were formed to develop (1) clean, efficient, and secure electricity production and transmission, (2) clean water, (3) clean air, (4) clean and efficient transportation, and (5) conservation of forest and wetland systems. The recent placement of U.S. Department of Energy officials in Beijing and of Chinese National Development and Reform Commission officials in Washington means that the annual meetings of U.S. and Chinese officials initiated during the Clinton administration have been replaced by daily, personal contact between the two large central bureaucracies. The inclusion of energy and environmental issues in the Strategic Economic Dialogue should continue so long as these issues do not become subordinated to other economic interests. And if these task forces do not produce concrete, measurable progress according to the goals outlined in the energy and environment cooperation framework, both governments should consider a higher level of formal interaction on energy issues. As the United States and other countries have done in the past, each government could task key central leaders with handling energy cooperation. The U.S. vice president and his Chinese counterpart (Xi Jinping is a Politburo member being groomed to replace President and Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao) could establish close ties in order to more effectively spur on the cooperation of both bureaucracies. But we also have to ask whether or not existing governmental ties can themselves produce the type of...