As the price of oil soars to $100 a barrel and countries scramble to limit the fallout of the sudden loss of Middle East fuel, China has two significant advantages over its geopolitical rivals.

随着油价飙升至每桶100美元，各国紧急行动起来，以求平抑中东燃料突然断供所带来的冲击，这期间，中国相对于其地缘政治对手拥有两大显著优势。

Many of its new cars run on electricity. And that electricity is mostly powered by sources at home.

其相当一部分新车采用电力驱动。而且这些电力主要来自国内能源。

China has spent decades and hundreds of billions of dollars investing in electric vehicles and renewable energy, a long-term strategy that is paying off as other countries grapple with upheavals in the oil market. Beijing has sought to curb its reliance on foreign energy by expanding domestic supply and accelerating the development of alternative power sources, including solar, wind, hydro and nuclear.

中国几十年来投入数千亿美元发展电动汽车和可再生能源，这一长期战略如今正在开花结果，而其他国家正为石油市场的剧变苦苦挣扎。北京通过扩大国内供给并加速开发包括太阳能、风能、水能和核能的替代能源，努力降低对外国能源的依赖。

Chinese demand for refined oil, gasoline and diesel fell last year, making a second straight annual decline. This has prompted experts to forecast that China’s oil and gas consumption has peaked and that the country is less vulnerable to energy supply disruptions than it once was.

去年，中国对精炼油、汽油和柴油的需求出现下降，这是连续第二年下滑。专家因而预测，中国的石油和天然气消费已达峰值，该国已经不再那么容易受到能源供应中断的影响。

“China has a bit of a buffer and cushion compared to other countries,” said Michal Meidan, head of China energy research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, an independent research group. “The supply outages and price hikes do not significantly impact the running of its economy.”

“与其他国家相比，中国拥有一定的缓冲空间，”独立研究机构牛津能源研究所中国能源研究负责人米歇尔·梅丹表示。“供应中断和价格上涨不会对其经济运行造成重大影响。”

Oil prices pushed above $100 for the second time in a week amid growing concern that the ongoing fighting will choke traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that is a vital trading route for oil and natural gas. World leaders agreed to release a record amount of oil from their emergency reserves and President Trump has backed off penalties on some Russian exports, but fears of supply shortages persisted as a growing number of oil and cargo ships became targets.

由于人们越来越担心持续的冲突将切断霍尔木兹海峡的交通——这条伊朗与阿曼之间的狭窄水道是石油和天然气的重要贸易通道——油价在一周内第二次突破100美元大关。世界各国领导人同意从紧急储备中释放创纪录数量的石油，唐纳德·特朗普总统也放宽了对部分俄罗斯出口的制裁，但随着越来越多油轮和货轮成为攻击目标，对供应短缺的担忧依然挥之不去。

While China imports half of its seaborne crude from the Middle East, Beijing has enough breathing room to avoid the kinds of extreme measures that some Asian countries have already adopted, such as shifting to a four-day workweek or closing universities to conserve energy.

虽然中国一半的海运原油来自中东，但北京有足够的回旋余地，不必像许多亚洲国家那样实施极端的措施，例如改行四天工作制或大学停课，以节约能源。

Over the last few years, China has transitioned the world’s largest automobile market from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles faster than any other major global economy. China sold more electric vehicles in 2025 than the rest of the world combined.

在过去几年里，中国以比其他主要全球经济体更快的速度将全球最大的汽车市场从燃油车转向电动汽车。2025年，中国电动汽车销量超过全球其他地区总和。

Half of the new cars sold in China are electric vehicles or hybrids that run on both electricity and gas. Around one-third of all new heavy-duty trucks are purely electric, according to the latest available data from the China Passenger Car Association.

在中国销售的新车中，一半是电动汽车或油电混合动力车。根据中国乘用车协会最新数据，大约三分之一的新重型卡车为纯电动。

By comparison, in the United States, around 22 percent of new cars sold in 2025 were hybrid or electric vehicles, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Electric vehicle sales plunged over the last few months of the year after a chunky federal tax credit expired.

相比之下，根据美国能源信息署数据，2025年美国新车销量中约22%为混合动力或电动汽车。一项巨额联邦税收抵免到期后，电动汽车销量在当年最后几个月大幅下滑。

A decade ago, China’s leading position in electric cars might have seemed improbable. Sales of gas-guzzling cars were surging and gasoline demand was climbing. But that changed after the government poured $300 billion into a campaign to create homegrown high-tech giants and reduce its foreign dependencies.

十年前，中国在电动汽车领域占据领先地位可能显得不可思议。当时，耗油量大的汽车销量激增，汽油需求持续攀升。但政府投入3000亿美元（约合20000亿元人民币）推动本土高科技巨头崛起并减少对外依赖后，局面发生了变化。

2025年，中国的电动汽车销量超过了世界其他地区的总和，由此创造了全国各地对充电站的需求。

From 2016 to 2022, the Chinese government provided more than $5 billion in direct subsidies to automakers to spur the development of electric vehicles, according to government data. BYD received the largest share and last year overtook Tesla as the world’s top electric vehicle seller.

根据政府数据，从2016年到2022年，中国政府向汽车制造商提供了超过50亿美元（约合344亿元人民币）的直接补贴，以刺激电动汽车发展。比亚迪获得最大份额，并于去年超过特斯拉，成为全球电动汽车销量冠军。

For Beijing, this shift to electric vehicles and renewable energy is rooted in a long-running fixation on addressing China’s energy vulnerabilities.

对北京而言，向电动汽车和可再生能源转型根植于长期以来对中国能源脆弱性的执着关注。

In the 2000s, Chinese leader Hu Jintao was preoccupied with another narrow passageway through which oil traveled to China: the Strait of Malacca. At the time, the waterway that separated Indonesia and Malaysia from Singapore carried 25 percent of global trade.

在2000年代，中国领导人胡锦涛曾格外关注另一条将石油运往中国的狭窄通道：马六甲海峡。当时，这条分隔印尼、马来西亚与新加坡的水道承载着全球25%的贸易。

“It is no exaggeration to say that whoever controls the Strait of Malacca will also have a stranglehold on the energy route of China,” a Chinese state-owned newspaper wrote in 2004.

2004年，一家中国国有报纸写道：“毫不夸张地说，谁控制了马六甲海峡，谁就扼住了中国的能源命脉。”

At the time, China responded by creating emergency petroleum stockpile facilities and investing in renewable energies. Today, among major Asian economies, China is the least affected by disruptions to oil and gas supplies from the Middle East.

当时，中国通过建立紧急石油储备设施和投资可再生能源作出回应。如今，在主要亚洲经济体中，中国受中东石油和天然气供应中断的影响最小。

China is the world’s largest buyer of oil and gas and relies on coal for a little more than half of its energy needs. Oil and natural gas make up about a quarter. The rest is powered by nuclear and renewable sources like solar, wind and hydro.

中国是全球最大的石油和天然气买家，煤炭满足其略超一半的能源需求。石油和天然气约占四分之一，其余由核能以及太阳能、风能、水能等可再生能源提供。

“China’s push for renewable energy is not motivated by the environment but by the need for energy security and also as a driver of growth,” said Mathias Larsen, senior policy fellow at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. “Energy security has always been high on the agenda; it has always been a key motive.”

“中国推动可再生能源并非出于环保考虑，而是出于能源安全需求，同时也作为经济增长的引擎，”伦敦政治经济学院格兰瑟姆研究所高级政策研究员马蒂亚斯·拉森表示。“能源安全始终是重中之重，一直是核心动机。”

While three-quarters of its oil is imported, it has been building up large strategic reserves. In the first two months of the year, China imported 16 percent more oil than in the same period a year earlier.

虽然四分之三的石油依赖进口，但中国一直在大规模积累战略储备。今年前两个月，中国石油进口量同比增加16%。

Two days after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, cheered China’s progress.

在美国和以色列对伊朗发动袭击两天后，中共机关报《人民日报》为中国的进步欢呼。

“My country has built the world’s largest renewable energy system,” the paper blared on the front page. The article noted that China had the world’s largest electric vehicle charging network.

该报头版头条高调宣称：“我国建成全球最大的可再生能源体系。”文章指出，中国拥有全球最大的电动汽车充电网络。

But even with these efforts, people in China are not entirely shielded from higher oil prices.

但即便有这些努力，中国民众仍无法完全免受油价上涨的影响。

Many Chinese homes also still rely on imported gas for heating. Chinese factories need petrochemicals to produce raw materials critical to the world’s supply chains, such as polyester for garments and rubber for tires.

许多中国家庭仍依赖进口天然气取暖。中国工厂需要石化产品生产全球供应链关键原材料，例如服装用的聚酯和轮胎用的橡胶。

On Monday, as oil prices skyrocketed toward $120, owners of internal combustion engine cars waited in long lines outside gas stations in dozens of Chinese cities. China’s top economic planning agency increased the retail price of oil by five percent, the biggest increase in four years, bringing the price at the pump to an average of $4.20 per gallon.

周一，当油价飙升逼近120美元时，中国数十个城市的燃油汽车车主在加油站外排起长队。中国最高经济规划机构将零售油价上调5%，创四年最大涨幅，使加油站平均油价达到每升7.96元。

Not long after the move, one woman in the Chinese coastal province of Zhejiang vented her frustration on RedNote, a Chinese social media app, posting a picture of her white Audi A5 filling up at a gas station.

上调后不久，沿海省份浙江的一名女性在中文社交媒体应用“小红书”上发泄不满，贴出了一张自己的白色奥迪A5在加油站加油的照片。

“What used to be called ‘fill up the tank’ is now called ‘pay for the petrol car,’” she wrote. “Every time I step on the gas, it feels like my heart’s bleeding.”

她写道：“以前叫‘加满油’，现在叫‘给油车交钱’。每踩一脚油门，都觉得心在滴血。”