Energy resources are not sufficient to fuel China's economic growth - because: China's economic growth has been running at about 9% p.a, while energy demand was up 15%p.a. and oil imports grew at 30% p.a. (Andrews-Speed (2007) )
 - but: the Three Gorges Dam, which is the largest hydroelectric river dam in the world, will produce electrical energy that is needed for China's economic growth
 - because: China’s energy sector has a number of intrinsic weaknesses
- because: China has a shortage of domestic oil and gas reserves relative to current and future demand (www.feer.com)
- because: there exists in the nation geographic mismatch between the location of primary energy resources and the main centers of demand (www.feer.com)
- because: China needs ever more oil to fuel its explosive economic growth (news.bbc.co.uk)
- because: China is now the world's number two oil importer (news.bbc.co.uk)
- because: there is always fuel shortage in China recent years (www.reuters.com)
- because: The government raises prices to curb demand and encourage refiners to produce more (ap.google.com)
- because: In the recent months,the government has raised the oil price for several times, that mean the demand of oil is very large and there is not enough supply of oil
- because: the cities in China are developing very rapidly
- because: China is world’s 2nd largest consumer of energy, but its rate of increase of demand is some four to five times that for the rest of the world (www.feer.com)
- but: China still has a lot of potential renewable energy resources yet to be extracted
 - because: it is estimated that the total potential wind power generating capacity in China equals the power generating capacity of 50 Three Gorges Dam (>10m MV) (Wikipedia (2019))
 - because: it is estimated that biomass energy from agricultural waste, straw and waste from cities alone in China may exceed 500 m MT of coal equivalents (Wikipedia (2019))
- but: new oil resources are constantly being discovered in China
 - because: the new discoveries and production are not able to offset current depletion of oil reserve in the country due to its rapid economic growth (Simmons (2006) )
- because: PetroChina has just discovered in an offshore field in Bohai Bay with proven reserves equal to about 10 per cent of the country's oil and gas reserves (Chan (2007) )
- but: China consumes less energy with fast economic growth (www.china-embassy.org)
- but: China is the world's biggest coal producer (www.china-embassy.org)
 - but: China's coal stockpile has plunged to its lowest level in 20 years (news.bbc.co.uk)
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Email: goodpoint@elc.polyu.edu.hk
