Hu Returns Home From Russia Empty-Handed on Energy

The Year of China in Russia got off to a top-level handshaking start in Moscow this week, ensuring that whatever else might go amiss, visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao would have something to smile about, for the TV stations back home at least.

But after three days of political pledges and promises with President Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders, the Chinese president has returned home without any progress on the one issue that hexes Beijing now — energy security.


China cannot maintain its racing economic growth of over 10 percent a year without scouring the world to vacuum up energy resources, and it is desperate to get its hands on some of the huge quantities of oil, gas, and coal in Russia’s vast Siberian backyard; it also wants to import Russian electricity.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua said that in their talks, Hu and Putin gave “high attention to energy cooperation.” Such glib political cant cannot camouflage the fact that the two men said much the same last year when Putin visited Beijing for the Year of Russia in China.

World Politics Watch