After a decade of discussions, China and Russia finally signed a $400 billion, 30 year gas deal in May 2014. But it was only a month later that world oil prices began a steady descent, reshaping China’s outlook towards energy security, and its viewpoint towards energy relations with Russia in the process.

‘One Belt, One Road', or yidai yilu in Chinese, is on everyone’s lips these days. The ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy initiative. First announced in 2013, the land-based “Silk Road Economic Belt” and its maritime twin, the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” are ambitious plans aimed at placing...