Asia Looks Seaward

Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), since Japan competes with China for energy

resources in Russia and the East China Sea, and because the JMSDF cooperates

with both the U.S. and the Indian navies.^14

The Malacca Dilemma is reportedly garnering significant high-level attention

in Beijing and may be driving China to search for alternative oil shipment routes.

This could mean laying a pipeline through Myanmar to China’s Yunnan Province

or a ‘‘Malacca bypass’’ pipeline across southern Thailand’s Kra Isthmus.^15 Never-

theless, China is likely to rely on oil shipments through Malacca for the

foreseeable future, simply because of the steep cost of establishing new shipping

routes.^16

Commercial Factors

Despite the Chinese tanker buildup’s statist overtones, shippers will likely

resist taking orders from the government. The nature of the Chinese govern-

ment’s relationship with the tanker operators is conveyed by a Chinese phrase

that loosely translates as ‘‘government builds the stage and the companies play.’’

That is, the government ‘‘stage master’’ can set certain ground rules, but the

‘‘actors’’ enjoy substantial freedom to pursue their own commercial objectives

once the ‘‘stage’’ is built and the ‘‘performance’’ begins.

114 Asia Looks Seaward

Figure 6.1 Main global long-haul tanker builders.

Source:Lloyd’s Sea-Web.

Note:‘‘Long-haul’’ means tankers greater than 100,000 DWT; percentages rounded to the nearest per-

centage point.