Oil-Thirsty China Strives For Persian Petroleum

Based on some estimates, almost every second barrel of crude oil that leaves the Persian Strait of Hormuz in 2010 will head to the Strait of Malacca to be used by the Asia-Pacific economies. China leads the region’s oil consumers, and in 2010 it will have to import 4 million barrels of oil per day; by 2025 China will be importing 9.4 million barrels.

Aside from Iran, nearly all the oil producers in the Persian Gulf area have close cooperation with the United States, and China’s growing thirst for oil has made it imperative for Beijing, using its special relationship with Tehran, to get closer to the Middle East. Because of its strategic, political and economic importance, the Near East occupies a unique place in international politics, and without having some stake in this region China would put its long-term prospects as a rising global power in a very vulnerable position.
Global Politician