Cáceresa, Sigfrido Burgos and Sophal Earb

Abstract
China’s double-digit average growth in the last twenty years has built up manufacturing and industrial behemoths that helped move the country from an agrarian society into a major economic player in the global economy. This prosperous growth coupled with construction of urban infrastructures and the rapid adoption of profligate lifestyles has created dependency on energy sources, raw materials and natural resources that need to be secured to maintain commercial, economic, and social wheels turning. In failing to sustain growth and security, both of which are national priorities, the Chinese Communist Party faces ideological and political risks. As a result, China’s global resources quest is taking it to faraway lands and its presence as well as its motives and mechanisms raises geopolitical issues around the globe.