In November 2001, member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO) approved the proposal to admit China to the international trading body. After fifteen years of exhaustive negotiations, China finally became the 143rd member of the WTO on December 11, 2001. To reflect on this event, this panel brings together six China experts to explore the ramifications of China's accession to the WTO. Among the issues addressed are whether China is making progress in its compliance with the WTO requirements, whether China is suffering setbacks in the socio-economic arena, whether there are any prospects for democratic reforms and stronger human rights and environmental protection in the country, and what the WTO accession means to China's neighbors and the global community.

We wrote By All Means Necessary: How China's Resource Quest Is Changing World to illuminate one of most discussed but least understood dimensions of China's rise, and we are grateful for four kind and thoughtful review essays. Indeed, months since book was published have only made importance of subject clearer. The China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has begun drilling for oil near Paracel Islands, sparking heated confrontation with Vietnam that United States and regional powers are struggling to respond to.1 The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has signed 30-year gas supply deal with Russian company Gazprom, reflecting mix of confidence on China's part in its ability to manage imports, desire to increase use of natural gas, and, critically, continuing motivation to diversify its sources of supply.2 Meanwhile, countries around world are shifting their policies partly in response to Chinese investment. Chinese investment in Myanmar, for example, continues to fall precipitously-in just three short years, China is estimated to have moved from first to tenth place in overall FDI in Myanmar-reinforcing importance of host-country politics in shaping opportunities for Chinese business.3 As analysts and policymakers struggle to understand and respond to these and other developments, we are heartened that reviewers see By All Means Necessary as valuable guide.Nonetheless, they have some concerns. Llewelyn Hughes writes that we do not convey sense of how effective [state control over Chinese firms] is and what implications are for China's external behavior. Elizabeth Wishnick similarly comments that the focus of By All Means Necessary is primarily on China's commercial relationships, and it would have been interesting for book to explore foreign policy implications of these relationships further. These issues are central thread running through chapters four through six, though many of our findings are dispersed. We summarize some of those findings here.By All Means Necessary does not provide single strong bottom line, but that is because there is none-the answers to these questions, as Wojtek Wolfe observes in his essay, vary with circumstances. We show, for example, that state control is weaker over private firms than over state-owned ones; that state influence varies depending on market structure; that government is only inconsistently able to direct even state-owned firms toward its political ends; and that these limitations are not unique to Chinese firms operating abroad, but rather reflect relationships between state and firms that play out at home too. To extent that Chinese government can harness individual firms toward its political ends, this is primarily by influencing them through general conditions, such as availability of financing for overseas projects or leadership incentives related to party promotion, rather than through specific directives. The most immediate consequence for Chinese external behavior is simple: China cannot use its firms to fulfill its foreign policy goals nearly as effectively as many assume. Indeed, as we show in By All Means Necessary, Chinese experience fits with what Hughes describes as more general one, with poor governance outcomes at home and often result. For example, we document China's repeated but failed efforts to raise standards of its extractives firms operating abroad, and note that firms operating abroad but outside Chinese state control can create foreign policy headaches for Beijing.Hughes also writes that a second important issue given insufficient attention relates to Chinese firms' entry into markets unrelated to fossil fuel-based In particular, he is concerned with our neglect of Chinese firms' activities in green technologies, which he claims are related to growing [Chinese] demand for natural resources. …

In the past thirty years, China has transformed from an impoverished country where peasants comprised the largest portion of the populace to an economic power with an expanding middle class and more megacities than anywhere else on earth. This remarkable transformation has required, and will continue to demand, massive quantities of resources. Like every other major power in modern history, China is looking outward to find them. In By All Means Necessary, Elizabeth C. Economy and Michael Levi explore the unrivaled expansion of the Chinese economy and the global effects of its meteoric growth. China is now engaged in a far-flung quest, hunting around the world for fuel, ores, water, and land for farming, and deploying whatever it needs in the economic, political, and military spheres to secure the resources it requires. Chinese traders and investors buy commodities, with consequences for economies, people, and the environment around the world. Meanwhile the Chinese military aspires to secure sea lanes, and Chinese diplomats struggle to protect the country's interests abroad. And just as surely as China's pursuit of natural resources is changing the world--restructuring markets, pushing up commodity prices, transforming resource-rich economies through investment and trade--it is also changing China itself. As Chinese corporations increasingly venture abroad, they must navigate various political regimes, participate in international markets, and adopt foreign standards and practices, which can lead to wide-reaching social and political ramifications at home. Clear, authoritative, and provocative, By All Means Necessary is a sweeping account of where China's pursuit of raw materials may take the country in the coming years and what the consequences will be--not just for China, but for the whole world.

(2011). China's Energy Future: An Introductory Comment. Eurasian Geography and Economics: Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 461-463.

For years, China's leaders lay low; they now realize that fulfilling their needs at home demands a more activist global strategy. As China's economic and military power grow, the country will transform the world. In setting U.S. policy toward China, Washington must abandon old buzzwords and recognize China for the revolutionary power that it is.

The odds that the world will face catastrophic climate change are increasing, and a massive drive to develop cheaper clean-energy sources is necessary. Instead of viewing the clean-energy race as a zero-sum game, governments must work together to promote cross-border innovation and protect intellectual property rights. Only by enlarging clean-energy markets can everyone benefit.

The Obama team is in good company. Henry Kissinger has called for the U.S.-Chinese relationship to be taken to a new level and Zbigniew Brzezinski has advocated the development of a G-2, a group of two comprising China and the United States that could address the international financial crisis, tackle climate change, limit the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and maybe even help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Early notes of potential discord -Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's description of China as a currency manipulator, Secretary Clinton's call for greater religious freedom in China, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair's openness to potential future arms sales to Taiwan -were muted in the interest of elevating the U.S.-Chinese relationship.