Newsmaker

Energy chief also conservationist, poet

By Fu Jing and Xie Songxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-02 11:39

Zhang Guobao, China’s energy chief, with a collection of poems in his office in Beijing. [CHINA DAILY]

BEIJING: For China's retiring energy chief Zhang Guobao, conservation is not just a goal, it is a way of life.

"Good habits and a simple lifestyle make you live an energy-saving life," says Zhang, head of the National Energy Administration. "That's my creed."

He doesn't drink or smoke, turns off heating and cooling systems in his office and instead opens windows when necessary, and he often fights off hunger with instant noodles when burning the midnight oil.

After learning that leaving a TV on standby consumes up to one kilowatt-hour every day, he never forgets to press the off button when he finishes watching.

"Once I learn such tips, I follow them," says Zhang, who knows well how precious energy and electricity are for this fast-growing populous country.

He is among the leaders behind a spate of giant projects, such as China's west-east oil pipeline, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the Beijing Capital International Airport and some nuclear power stations.

He led the efforts to revive the old industrial bases in Northeast China, and he is a tough and seasoned diplomat and negotiator who helped ink gas-supply deals with Russia and clean-energy cooperation agreements with the US.

When the price oil soared to $147 a barrel in July 2008, US investment company Goldman Sachs tried to persuade China to import oil on a large scale, insisting the price would skyrocket to $240 a barrel.

But Zhang didn't accept that, believing speculators had pushed up the price and it would decrease. He was right, and when oil declined to $80 a barrel amid the financial crisis last year, Zhang said it was the right time for China to start buying.

In the end, the average price of oil imported into China in 2009 was around $50 a barrel, well below the global average. "I am quite proud of my judgment and decision," says Zhang.

For a minister-level Cabinet official, Zhang's office is unexpectedly simple.

His 30-square-meter third-floor office has space for work, a meeting table and a rest area.

On tables lie heaps of documents for Zhang, who also works as vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, the most powerful Cabinet economic department.

Facing his office table is a set of high shelves holding not only books but model planes, internal combustion engines, nuclear power stations and photos of him shaking hands with prominent figures such as US President Barack Obama. The items symbolize the successful career of an engineer-turned-politician.

"Life is brief and I am always thinking less of past achievements, positions and honors," says Zhang at the start of a poem he penned on his 65th birthday, which fell on Nov 19 last year.

The poem is included in his 2009 collection, which is his Spring Festival gift for visitors, friends and family.

"I love to write poems, but please don't call me a poet," says Zhang humbly. He never received literary education after graduating from senior high school in the 1960s.

"Leave behind success and honor and keep your hands clean from corruption and embezzlement," Zhang ends the poem, continuing: "Adjust yourself easily to the role of either minister or ordinary citizen, and a man among men is he who knows this and performs it."