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spiralx | 2 years ago

LOL, almost all of China's oil supply runs through the Straits of Malacca which the US Navy could blockade with a carrier fleet and a few submarines. Why do you think they've been so heavily focussed on building relationships (and pipelines) with Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Russia and building up their deep water navy in the South China Sea?

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yogthos|2 years ago

I think you've answered your own question here. Russia is one of the biggest oil suppliers, and they're building another big pipeline as we speak

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russia-finalising-po...

It's not clear how US plans to block oil supply going forward here. Also, worth noting that unlike the west, China is taking alternative energy seriously. China is far ahead in terms of using renewable energy

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-widens-ren...

They're also massively investing in nuclear https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-cli...

So, China's reliance on fossil fuels is going to keep decreasing going forward, and that will make it that much easier to fill the gap from friendly countries where US can't interfere.

Finally, it's kind of silly to think that this is a one way street. If US ever did decide to try and blockade China, it's obvious that China would retaliate. We're already seeing this with the whole chip war right now where China has stopped export of Germanium and Gallium. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/china-export-curbs-...

Given how dependent US economy is on China, the blowback from any sort of blockade of China would do incredible damage domestically in the US.

spiralx|2 years ago

As of 2021 Russia supplied 15% of China's oil and 6% of it's natural gas, and those pipelines are a) for gas, not oil, and b) increase from 38 Bcm to 88 Bcm, while total imports via pipe are 2,000 Bcm, which c) doesn't account for LNG imports via ship.

https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/CHN

In other words, Russian pipelines supply very little of China's energy needs, and that's not going to change anytime soon. The only thing that could really change that is global warming enabling Russia to ship fossil fuels from its north coast to China.