Petroleum in the South China Sea : a Chinese national interest

Abstract

The thesis analyses the relationship between China's petroleum policies and China's involvement in the South China Sea conflict. The aim of the thesis is to determine what China's national interest are in the South China Sea, and to detect who forms, and how, China's South China Sea policy. The thesis discusses whether China's assumed interest in the South China Sea of exploiting the petroleum reserves of the territorially disputed areas of the South China Sea is a short-term national interest promoted by China's supreme leadership, or whether this assumed national interest is in fact a bureaucratic interest created by Chinese oil corporations and the Chinese navy. The main finding of the thesis is that China's South China Sea policy is not formulated as the result of proactive, top-down initiatives from the supreme Chinese leadership. China's South China Sea policy is rather formulated as the result of reactive, bottom-up initiatives from other Chinese actors engaged in the South China Sea. As such, China's South China Sea policy is the result of the interaction between national and bureaucratic interests