The world’s key resources of energy, food and water, which are closely connected and interdependent on each other, are coming under increasing pressure, as a result of increasing population, development and climate change. In the case of China, following its recent economic surge, energy, food and water are already nearing the point of shortage. This book considers how China is working to avoid shortages of energy, food and water, and the effect this is having internationally. Subjects covered include domestic policy debates on China’s resource strategies, challenges for managing transboundary waters related to China, responses from various regions and countries to China’s ‘Go Out’ strategy, and China’s increasing energy links with Russia and declining agricultural trade with the United States. The book concludes by discussing in comparative perspective China’s outward resource acquisition activities and the consequent policy implications.

In the past decade, China's urban population and economy have grown dramatically. China realizes it must maintain steady and secure access to natural resources in order to placate its populace and maintain economic growth. This monograph examines Chinese actions to secure access to natural resources at home and abroad and discusses the affect a resource secure China has on the United States. China has shown that she has developed a comprehensive plan to maximize production of domestic natural resources and ensure access to multiple foreign sources, through internal restructuring, partnerships with foreign energy companies and effective use of all elements of national power. China's growing resource security affects the United States primarily in three ways. First, a resource secure China is difficult to leverage or threaten. Second, since China's resource security depends to a large degree on foreign supply, it will be challenging for the United States to pressure countries with which China has resource ties. Third, China's increasing influence in developing areas will cause the United States to revisit its foreign engagement policies.

From two leading scholars in the field, a comprehensive account of the Chinese economy's explosive growth over the past 25 years.

In the past thirty years, China has transformed from an impoverished country where peasants comprised the largest portion of the populace to an economic power with an expanding middle class and more megacities than anywhere else on earth. This remarkable transformation has required, and will continue to demand, massive quantities of resources. Like every other major power in modern history, China is looking outward to find them. In By All Means Necessary, Elizabeth C. Economy and Michael Levi explore the unrivaled expansion of the Chinese economy and the global effects of its meteoric growth. China is now engaged in a far-flung quest, hunting around the world for fuel, ores, water, and land for farming, and deploying whatever it needs in the economic, political, and military spheres to secure the resources it requires. Chinese traders and investors buy commodities, with consequences for economies, people, and the environment around the world. Meanwhile the Chinese military aspires to secure sea lanes, and Chinese diplomats struggle to protect the country's interests abroad. And just as surely as China's pursuit of natural resources is changing the world--restructuring markets, pushing up commodity prices, transforming resource-rich economies through investment and trade--it is also changing China itself. As Chinese corporations increasingly venture abroad, they must navigate various political regimes, participate in international markets, and adopt foreign standards and practices, which can lead to wide-reaching social and political ramifications at home. Clear, authoritative, and provocative, By All Means Necessary is a sweeping account of where China's pursuit of raw materials may take the country in the coming years and what the consequences will be--not just for China, but for the whole world.

In the past decade, China's urban population and economy have grown dramatically. China realizes it must maintain steady and secure access to natural resources in order to placate its populace and maintain economic growth. This monograph examines Chinese actions to secure access to natural resources at home and abroad and discusses the affect a resource secure China has on the United States. China has shown that she has developed a comprehensive plan to maximize production of domestic natural resources and ensure access to multiple foreign sources, through internal restructuring, partnerships with foreign energy companies and effective use of all elements of national power. China's growing resource security affects the United States primarily in three ways. First, a resource secure China is difficult to leverage or threaten. Second, since China's resource security depends to a large degree on foreign supply, it will be challenging for the United States to pressure countries with which China has resource ties. Third, China's increasing influence in developing areas will cause the United States to revisit its foreign engagement policies.