Energy Geopolitics and Chinese Strategic Decision of the Energy-Supply Security: A Multiple-Attribute Analysis

For the balance between risk and return under the energy geopolitics, this paper attempts to investigate the energy geopolitical attraction rather than the general geopolitical risk of energy-exporting countries and focus on selecting and ranking the countries characterized by multiple geopolitical determinants. We identify the major determinants of energy geopolitics and construct the energy geopolitical climate index to capture the common underlying characteristics of the energy geopolitical attraction. Then, the energy geopolitical climate index values are extracted from multiple geopolitical determinants using a multiple-attribute analysis, factor analysis. Finally, 35 energy-exporting countries are selected to test the effectiveness of the model from the perspective of Chinese energy-supply security. Empirical results account for the relationship between energy geopolitics and energy-security strategy of China and indicate that it is an effective solution to strengthen energy cooperation with the peripheral energy-exporting countries besides the Middle East for improving Chinese energy-supply security. By comparing empirical results with the real situation of international energy geopolitics, we confirmed the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed methodology.