How China-Gulf ties can turn energy vulnerability into sustainability

Mohamad Zreik is a postdoctoral fellow at the School of International Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, China.For decades, the Strait of Hormuz has been a narrow passage with a big footprint. Whenever it comes under tension, the world is reminded that energy security is less a policy construct than an everyday reality for Asia’s economies, factories and prices. For China, Japan, South Korea, India and Southeast Asia, it has always been more than just a Middle Eastern problem. It is an Asian economic issue.This is why we should not interpret the latest Gulf tensions solely in terms of naval forces, sanctions and deterrence. Rather, it is a question of whether Asia can rely on a security regime in which oil supplies are vulnerable to political disruption and the world’s largest energy producers and consumers have little sway over escalation.For China and the Gulf States, there should be a more ambitious energy deal: one that maintains a stable oil trade but eventually brings the cooperation focus back to renewables, storage, electric vehicles, industrial localisation and green finance.