Higher commodity prices are crashing over China’s economy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, intensifying Beijing’s focus on energy security just as lawmakers gather for their annual policy-setting meeting.
The world’s recovery from the pandemic had already launched commodities prices to new highs and forced China’s government to rethink how it balances short-term energy needs with its long-term aim of delivering a carbon neutral society. Now, the war in Ukraine is putting extra pressure on the world’s biggest importer of oil and gas, and an economy that relies on coal to fuel its industrial base.
It isn’t clear what specific measures could be unveiled at the National People’s Congress, which begins in the capital on Saturday. But China’s energy policies in recent months have been skewed to supporting growth in an economy that has stumbled since the summer. Some of the restraints around energy use and carbon emissions that proved so inflationary last year have been relaxed as Beijing battled a power crunch. That’s shifted much of the emphasis from the steps necessary to transition away from fossil fuels.