The standard of living of Chinese in the years ahead will depend to a very large degree on the economic growth that they are able to maintain.

China is the world’s most populous country. China’s GDP is estimated to have grown at 9.9 percent in 2005. Inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China totaled $86.1 billion in 2005.

China delinked its currency from the U.S. dollar in July 2005, resulting in an initial devaluation of 2.1 percent. Since the devaluation, the Chinese currency has appreciated about 1.4 percent against the U.S. dollar as of mid-July 2006.

The shortage of energy resources has caused China to depend heavily on oil imports. China has been exploring around the world for oil. With 1.5 billion people, it consumes only 6.8% of the world’s daily oil output, far below American consumption. China’s economy growth is at almost 10% a year and its own supplies of oil have begun to dry up. The only option has been to import. The major countries which export oil to China are Saudi Arabia, Angola, Russia, Iran, Oman, Republic of Korea, Venezuela, the Congo and Equatorial Guinea.

China today is the world’s third largest oil importer. By 2020 China will have 140 million private cars, more even than the United States. Together with strong economic growth, China’s demand for energy is surging rapidly. EIA forecasts that China’s oil consumption will increase by almost 38 percent of the total growth in world oil demand. China would continuously rely heavily on oil import to satisfy the increasing demand of its rapid economic growth.

China’s export of natural gas was about 2.2524 million tons in 2006.

China is also spending billions of dollars in to renewable energy – solar, wind power and biomass. China wants 15% of its power to come from renewable sources. The five great rivers of Asia all originate from China. China will need all of these projects simply to keep up with its economic growth.