Book Review - "China’s Energy Geopolitics: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Central Asia" by Thrassy N. Marketos (ed.) (Oxon & NY: Routledge, 2008, 184 pp. ISBN: 978-0-415-45690-6)

Since 1993, China has been a net importer of oil. With its unparalleled economic growth over the past two decades, it developed a huge hunger for resources to sustain its industrial production. Taking a glance at the interrelation between the economic growth and the legitimacy of the Chinese communist regime, it becomes obvious: securing resource flows is a highly political issue. In his book China’s Energy Geopolitics: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Central Asia, Thrassy N. Marketos places Beijing’s energy problem in the broader framework of its geopolitical situation in relation to the Central Eurasian states as well as Russia and the USA.