China’s Resources at a Glance

China is a leading global producer of minerals and metals. While the United States is also a significant producer, it is import dependent on China for a number of minerals critical to digital age civilian and military technology (see, for example, the “What’s in a Cell Phone?” chart below). At the same time, while China exported more than $24 billion in 2017 in non-ferrous, specialty, and precious metals, the country also imported $159 billion of those resources. These imports come from a wide range of countries, though more than $60 billion (or almost 40 percent) originate in Australia, South Africa, Chile, Peru, and the United States.

In addition to mineral imports, China invests directly in the mining sector of other countries (an estimated $140 billion between 2005 and 2018), particularly in steel and aluminium in Australia and copper in Peru.¹

In 2013, President Xi Jinping declared that “the rice bowl of the Chinese people must be held firmly in our own hands.”² China has indeed dramatically increased the domestic production of staple crops, though the quest for self-sufficiency has generally required significant water and other inputs, such as fertilizer and pesticides, given the relative paucity of arable land in China. In addition, the rapid rate of urbanization and changing dietary patterns³ (toward higher consumption of red meat⁴, for example) are now driving an increase in imports.⁵ Imports of soybean, a main ingredient in cattle and livestock feed, are indicative of this trend. Although imports of food today make up a relatively small part of China’s domestic consumption, some of the suppliers can be quite concentrated: in 2017, for example, Ukraine supplied 40 percent of China’s imported maize and New Zealand provided over 50 percent of China’s imported dairy products.⁶ In addition to importing agricultural goods, China acquires farmland⁷ and directly invests in agriculture in other countries, an estimated $82 billion⁸ between January 2006 and May 2018. In 2017, for example, China National Chemical (ChemChina) purchased a 98 percent share of the Swiss pesticide and seed giant, Syngenta, for $43 billion.⁹

China accounts for about 6 percent of the world’s fresh water and 20 percent of the global population, with annual water shortages exceeding 50 billion cubic meters.¹³ In other words, the demand for water is outpacing supply, which is exacerbated by pollution and the uneven regional distribution of resources. Northern China¹⁴, for example, is home to roughly 47 percent of the population and contains 65 percent of China’s arable land, yet accounts for only 20 percent of water that is naturally available.¹⁵ Water availability and quality issues are particularly acute in regions of China that are rapidly urbanizing, including Beijing.¹⁶ Agriculture accounts for roughly 62 percent of water use in China, and through over-application of fertilizer and pesticides, it accounts for significant water pollution, too.¹⁷

China is the world’s largest energy consumer, with a portfolio that is at once diverse and concentrated in terms of both energy supplies and suppliers. Almost two-thirds of China’s primary energy consumption is coal, accounting for half of all global coal use. The country also accounts for 46 percent of global coal production, with 13 percent of the world’s proven coal reserves.¹⁸ It is nonetheless the world’s largest importer of coal, as well, with Australia and Indonesia as the lead suppliers. When it comes to oil, China has surpassed the United States as the world’s largest consumer and importer, and is dependent on imports for around 60 percent of oil consumption.¹⁹ Although China has more than a dozen suppliers of oil, it relies heavily on Russia, Angola, and the Persian Gulf. Natural gas only accounts for about 7 percent of China’s primary energy consumption, but both production and imports are growing fast, with Turkmenistan, Australia, and Oman as the biggest suppliers. Likewise, China is seeing fast growth in renewable energy but from a low base, about 3 percent of China’s primary energy consumption today.²⁰ At the same time, China is an important driver in the global adoption of renewables, accounting for 36 percent of worldwide growth.²¹ The country has invested extensively in a range of energy projects in other countries, including in the United States, totaling around $365 billion from 2005 to 2018.²²

Today, China is fundamentally energy insecure, given its high reliance on imports and the underlying difficulty of quick substitution, when it comes to energy consumption. China is vulnerable to market forces, disruptions as a result of civil unrest or natural disasters in the supply chain, or deliberate manipulation, through sanctions or other economic tools and weapons, although the country does have a strategic stockpile to mitigate these risks. Nonetheless, the overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels is not only a present-day source of insecurity, it also contributes to China’s long-term vulnerability to climate change.