Construction workers work on a section of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline in China's Hebei province, April 2020. Credit: Imaginechina via AP Images
On February 28, just four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, its state-owned energy giant Gazprom agreed with Mongolia to proceed with plans for one of the world’s largest gas pipelines, aiming to link Russian fields which currently supply Europe to energy-hungry China.
There’s just one hitch: Beijing isn’t yet fully on board.
Gazprom has long been agitating for a deal to supply gas to China via the so-called Power of Siberia 2 pipeline (also known as Soyuz Vostok). Once completed, the new pipeline could funnel up to 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year, making Russia by far China’s largest single gas supplier.
Any such deal would also help the increasingly isolated Kremlin diversify away from Europe, currently the major consumer of Russian gas. European anger over the invasion of Ukraine has already led Germany to halt certification for a major new gas pipeline from Russia.
But two can play at the diversification game. Even though Presidents Pu
Exclusive longform investigative journalism, Q&As, news and analysis, and data on Chinese business elites and corporations. We publish China scoops you won't find anywhere else.
A weekly curated reading list on China from David Barboza, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Shanghai correspondent for The New York Times.
A daily roundup of China finance, business and economics headlines.
We offer discounts for groups, institutions and students. Go to our Subscriptions page for details.
On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with Wang Wentao, the Chinese Commerce Minister, in Washington. It marked the first cabinet-level meeting in Washington between the U.S. and China during the Biden administration, and it was a signal of the Commerce Department’s increasingly central role in the current U.S.-China relationship. Usually, the Commerce Department is far from the center of anything, but as Katrina Northrop reports, the department is uniquely suited to address the China challenge.
The lawyer and author talks about the attack on a train in the 1920s which created an international incident, the rise of the Communist Party and the conditions for foreign media in China today.
