Security risks of China’s main commercial shipping route: Africa

Abstract

Satisfying emerging China’s ever-increasing need for energy is not solely economic but social and political priority too. Boosting economic performance and chasing GDP per capita increment – which is also emphasized within the current five-year plan –are both primary concerns for Beijing since economic downturn would cause serious consequences which Communist Party leaders do not want to risk.
It is a frightening data that 80 percent of the country’s oil import – so all the supplies coming from the Middle East, Latin America and Africa – is coming through one route, China’s most important commercial route, where Beijing’s abilities to protect and secure its shipments are limited. From the South China Sea through the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean it is a more than 12000 km-long route with the Strait of Hormuz at one leg, while the other includes increasing pirate activities at the Somali shores and unstable African countries.
This route is in the centre of this research funded by the János Apáczai Csere National Excellence Program. The current study summarizes one of the chapters of the author’s upcoming book; it analyses the risks of the route’s African section. The volume dealing with the whole route’s security risks will be published in 2014.