China's economic rapid growth in two past decades and its quick move toward becoming a great power have increased its impact on international issues. Redefinition of China's strategic position in recent years that is mainly Influenced by its economic growth and consequently its military and diplomatic power, has changed its foreign policy strategy in different areas. Thus one of the regions redefined in Chinese foreign policy is the Persian Gulf. Due to enjoying the richest energy resources of the world, this region and its countries have the highest capabilities in providing China with energy and satisfying its strategic needs. By understanding this issue, the Chinese have tried hard to upgrade their relations with oil exporting countries of the region, particularly the main countries so that they can increase their share of the region's resources. Besides China's delayed entrance into competitive market of the Persian Gulf (the Middle East generally) has compelled the country that looks for resources and countries outside the control of the West, particularly the US. Given its huge resources of oil and gas on the one hand and international restrictions (multilateral sanctions), Iran is a relatively reliant source for providing China with energy. Thus we can raise this question: Will China as an important emerging power at the international level come from margins to the center of the Persian Gulf? In other words, what will the position of China be in the energy economy of the Persian Gulf? This research is based on this hypothesis that given their pragmatist and realist approach, the Chinese have understood that energy security can be a vulnerable strategic point for this country. Thus because of China's weak military power, particularly its navy, and its growing need to importing energy and the fact that more than 70 percent of the energy resources are in the Middle East (Persian Gulf), we can say that China is in the process of transition from margins to the center of energy economy of the Middle East due to necessity, selection and importance of energy security. But because the US controls the oil of the Middle East and Japan and Europe compete with China, it will face a hard situation. Thus China has adopted a kind of defensive strategy towards the US and its allies, an interactive strategy towards Saudi Arabia and playoff diplomacy, preferably towards the Islamic Republic of Iran in the region. Using descriptive-analytical method, this research firstly deals with definition and description of some concept as energy geopolitics, energy security and their relationship with energy economy. Then by considering the situation of energy resources of the world and the Persian Gulf, we will deal with analyzing and explaining the position of China in the energy economy of the Persian Gulf, emphasizing the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Mosallanejad, A., & Haghshenas, M. R. (2013). The Position of China in Energy Economy of the Persian Gulf:
Emphasizing I. R. of IRAN. Research Letter of Political Science, 8(1), 173-208.
MLA
Abbas Mosallanejad; Mohammad Reza Haghshenas. "The Position of China in Energy Economy of the Persian Gulf:
Emphasizing I. R. of IRAN". Research Letter of Political Science, 8, 1, 2013, 173-208.
HARVARD
Mosallanejad, A., Haghshenas, M. R. (2013). 'The Position of China in Energy Economy of the Persian Gulf:
Emphasizing I. R. of IRAN', Research Letter of Political Science, 8(1), pp. 173-208.
VANCOUVER
Mosallanejad, A., Haghshenas, M. R. The Position of China in Energy Economy of the Persian Gulf:
Emphasizing I. R. of IRAN. Research Letter of Political Science, 2013; 8(1): 173-208.
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