China’s Energy Rise and Implications to Southeast Asia

The implementation of a free trade area between China and ASEAN has enhanced economic links between them. In spite of this, China’s Southeast Asian neighbours still have strong strategic misgivings about the country’s growth in wealth and power. China’s energy rise, in the form of surging demands and an expanding presence, has added a new ingredient in Sino-Southeast Asian relations. From the combined perspectives of both economic mercantilism and economic liberalism, this article analyses the implications of China’s energy rise on its Southeast Asian neighbours, and the doubts and debates that surround them. Such impacts arguably are mixed, and the more important aspect of such impacts arises not from China’s surging demand per se, but rather from the policies it created to deal with it.