Reshaping Global Energy Infrastructure: China’s BRI Energy Cooperation (Indo-Pacific Focus)

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the new developments in China’s energy cooperation with Asian and African countries under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) over the past decade. It seeks to analyze the driving forces, new progress, and main challenges of energy cooperation between China and BRI route states. This book adopts a multi-dimensional perspective to analyze China’s energy cooperation with BRI route states, combining economic, political analysis, cultural narrative, and environmental governance. In contrast to traditional books that focus solely on energy security, this book combines economic and cultural dimensions, incorporating a broader framework. 

This book offers new perspectives on studying BRI energy cooperation. First, it emphasizes both China’s and BRI route states’ roles in BRI energy cooperation and highlights the common interests and mutual benefits between the two sides. It shows how China and BRI route states benefit from the energy cooperation. Second, the book also examines energy competition, particularly in energy infrastructure, between China, the United States, India, and Japan in Asian and African states, and how the competition could reshape the global energy infrastructure. Third, the book discusses environmental governance under BRI energy cooperation and reveals how China and BRI route states promote governance capabilities in the energy sector.   

The book has a vast readership and is suitable for academics and policy-minded readers. Scholars of international relations, energy policy, Asian and African studies, the BRI, and Chinese foreign policy will find the insightful views presented in the book valuable for their research. Policymakers and diplomats will benefit from its practical analyses, particularly in energy cooperation and competition. 

Nian Peng is Dean of the Academy of Area Studies and Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, China, as well as the Director of the Hong Kong Research Center for Asian Studies, Hong Kong. He holds a Ph.D. in Government and International Studies from Hong Kong Baptist University. His main research interests are in the areas of China-Southeast/South Asia relations, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), maritime security and energy politics in the Indo-Pacific. He has authored six books with Springer Nature and published articles in Ocean Development & International Law, Middle East Policy, Pacific Focus, Asian Affairs, and other journals. 

Yonghua Luo is Dean and Professor of the School of Economic Management, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, China. He completed his Ph.D. in Practical Economics at South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China. His main research areas are energy economy and digital economy.  

Huirong Zhang is a fellow of the Academy of Area Studies and Professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, China. She completed her Ph.D. in Foreign Languages and Literatures at Suzhou University, Suzhou, China. Her main research areas are energy culture and energy literatures.