Months of increasingly violent protests in Hong Kong; a trade war with the United States; an epidemic that has brought the pork industry to its knees; and a slowing global economy.

With all these challenges, the last thing that China – the world’s top oil importer – needs right now is a higher imported fuel bill.

A record 14 percent surge in oil prices on September 16 – following drone attacks on Saudi Arabian oil refineries – served to underscore China’s reliance on imported energy, and the importance of its plan to diversify its energy sources.

The missile attacks of October 11 on an Iranian oil tanker that caused a 2.4 percent jump in oil prices – the sharpest since the Gulf War in 1990 – and the prospect of broader unrest throughout the Middle East now that Turkey has moved forces into Kurdish areas of Syria, are only likely to heighten China’s unease, analysts say.

… “Globally, everyone is looking at higher oil prices and a higher energy bill,” James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told Al Jazeera. “To what degree that propels China to look at other alternatives, more renewables, more gas, theoretically this could be an incentive.”