Chinese officials reporting that their country is the biggest consumer of natural resources in the world, and most of those resources come from outside China.

Zhang Ping, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China uses double the world average in energy (based on GDP).  Also, more than 50% of China’s petroleum and iron ore comes from other countries (like Libya and Iran in the case of oil).

Still, the amount of energy usage is far behind China’s incredible economic growth: Domestic economic growth averaging an annual rate of 11.2%, while energy consumption remains at 6.6%.