Since becoming a net oil importer in 1993, China has rapidly overtaken everyone but the US in its thirst for the world's crude. If one could quantify a country's eagerness to control this vital resource though, China would surely be number one. Aggressive investments in Africa's resource sector have led some to dub its policies there the “Great Chinese Takeout”. Its latest move, a $20bn loans-for-oil deal with Venezuela, coming on top of an existing $8bn commitment, is its largest. This follows last year's $25bn loans-for-oil deal with Russia and separate agreements for $10bn each with Brazil and Kazakhstan.
自1993年成為石油凈進(jìn)口國(guó)之后，中國(guó)對(duì)全球原油的渴求，迅速超過(guò)了除美國(guó)以外的任何國(guó)家。不過(guò)，如果能夠?qū)⒁粋€(gè)國(guó)家對(duì)控制這種關(guān)鍵資源的渴望程度量化排序，中國(guó)無(wú)疑會(huì)拔得頭籌。中國(guó)在非洲資源領(lǐng)域的大舉投資，已經(jīng)讓一些人將其非洲政策戲稱為“中餐大外賣(mài)”(Great Chinese Takeout)。中國(guó)的最新舉動(dòng)——在現(xiàn)有80億美元承諾的基礎(chǔ)上，再次與委內(nèi)瑞拉簽署了200億美元的貸款換石油協(xié)議——是最大的一項(xiàng)此類(lèi)行動(dòng)。去年，中國(guó)與俄羅斯簽署了250億美元的貸款換石油協(xié)議，與巴西和哈薩克斯坦分別簽署了100億美元的協(xié)議。