Article at a glance:

Meeting China's energy needs through liberalization

• China's thirst for imported oil has the government concerned about securing enough energy to keep economic growth on track.
• Since the country's aging domestic oil fields will struggle just to maintain their current output, its state-controlled oil companies are paying premium prices for new reserves around the world.
• That strategy probably won't be enough to fill China's oil import gap and will likely prove more expensive than buying oil in global energy markets, as other countries do.
• A better alternative would be to liberalize China's energy sector and open it to investment from international companies.