At the Rizhao Port, a major coal exporting base in east China's Shandong Province, 25,000 tons of coal are shipped overseas daily, fueling economic growth of neighboring countries like Japan.

This is only a glimpse of the bigger picture of Chinese coal export. Last year, China shipped 90 millions of coal abroad.

"People have been fretting about the rising oil import of China, however, most of them are not aware that China is also a big energy exporter," said Zhang Guobao, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's economic planning agency.

Besides coal, China is also the top coke exporter in the world supplying 56 percent of the world's total coke demand in 2004.

China is a country nearly 67 percent of whose energy need is met by coal. The ratio of petroleum in its energy consumption structure is some 24 percent.

As a big coal producer, China self supplied 94 percent of its energy consumption last year, said Zhang.

In 2004, China produced 1.96 billion tons of coal. Together with its oil, natural gas, and other energy output, it produced a total of 1.85 billion-ton standard coal of primary energy, accounting for 11 percent of that year's global energy output, according to statistics of the NDRC.

As its primary energy consumption in 2004 was 1.97 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, China's energy self-supply capacity reached as high as 94 percent, among the highest in the world.

Despite its contribution to world energy supply, China has been blamed on driving up the international oil price with its rising demand in 2004.

"Such blames thronged as the oil import volume of China, a country of 1.3 billion population, reached 117 million tons while that of the United States, Japan and Europe are 500 million tons, 200 million tons and 500 million tons respectively," said Niu Li, an analyst of the State Information Center.

In 2004, China took up 6.31 percent of the world total oil trade while the United States took up 29.6 percent and Japan, 11.3 percent.

China's current average per capita primary energy consumption is just some 66 percent of that of the world average and only 13.4 percent of that of the United States and 26.7 percent of Japan, with some people in remote and poor rural areas even not accessible to common energy resources such as electricity.

"As human beings, the Chinese, as well as the people of the United States, Japan, the Middle East and Africa, all have the right to use energy to enjoy a better life," said Diego Montero, a 26-year-old U.S. editor working in China.

However, besides the normal rise in energy demand to meet a better life requirement of the Chinese, China witnessed a sharp rise of its energy consumption in recent years, especially those in coal, electricity and oil.

The extensive economic growth mode characterized by high energy consumption, low profits and high waste emission is the fundamental reason limiting the sustainable supply for China's energy use, said Jiang Xinmin, an expert with the Energy Research Institute of the NDRC.

China's energy consumption for per unit output value is 2.4 times higher than that of the world average level, and 4.97 times of that of Germany, 4.4 times of Japan and 1.65 times of India.

"Overheating and blind investment in such industries boasting high energy consumption as steel, electrolytic aluminum and cement is another major reason responsible for the hike of China's energy consumption in the past few years," said Jiang.

Those industries, mainly for export and of ample short-term profits have driven up the growth of China's heavy industries while bringing long-term damages to energy resources and environment.

As a result, China did experience an all-round tension of coal, electricity, oil and transportation supply in the past two years.

According to statistics of the NDRC, China's export of non-wrought aluminum, steel billets and steels, iron alloy and yellow phosphorus in 2004 consumed 49 billion kilowatt-hours only when being produced, accounting for 82 percent of China's total electric power supply gap of that year.

To reduce the export of products of high energy consumption, China called off or reduced the tax rebate to exporters of electrolytic aluminum, iron alloy, steels and coal and increased tax to exporters of non-wrought aluminum, carbamide and yellow phosphorus and silicon iron, which have proved effective to some extent so far.

With the forceful macroeconomic control move to cool down the overheating economy, a storm of building a more energy-efficient society is sweeping the country this year.

When night falls, the Huaihai Street, a famous commercial street in east China's Shanghai Municipality, looks brilliant and busy with 6,500 three-watt energy efficient lamps shining in the shades, which are 90 percent more efficient compared with the 40-watt incandescent lamps.

It is just one picture of China's green lighting project which has saved 45 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity since being launched in 1996.

The NDRC launched in 2005 the ten energy-efficient projects which aim to save 240 million tons of standard coal in the next five years, including the green lighting project, developing energy-efficient buildings and improving energy efficiency in governmental offices.

In northeastern Jilin Province, a major automotive production base in China, 80 percent of the car fuel in the market is the mixture of ethanol and gasoline. Last year, the mixture was sold 800,000 tons, greatly reducing local gasoline consumption.

Thanks to efforts both in improving efficiency and increasing oil output, China's oil import is expected to reach 130 million tons in 2005, a rise much lower than the expectation of the world from last year's 120 million tons, said Niu Li.

"We will try our best to maintain China's energy supply independence up to a high level such as the current 94 percent. It does not mean that we will always keep such a percentage. But as the general energy principles of the country, basing China's energy demand mainly on domestic supply is what China will do and is capable of doing," Zhang Guobao said recently when meeting journalists from home and overseas.

(Xinhua News Agency, September 22, 2005)