Last Friday, a vice-minister from the National Development and Reform Commission noted that China was 94 per cent self-sufficient in energy use last year. This was the highest in the world.

The governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, told reporters on the same day that he did not think rising energy prices would have a substantial impact on economic growth rates.

Public attention is increasingly turning to high oil prices, but reassuring words from top economic decision makers have helped ease domestic concerns over choked petrol pumps and foreign suspicion about China's growing appetite for energy.

Efforts are needed to keep energy supplies stable and buy more time for necessary reforms.

With global oil prices hitting new records these days, however, empty oil tanks have become an unexpected reality across the country. Time is running out for the country's comprehensive energy, efficiency and market regulation reforms.

One of the most pressing and important tasks for the government should now be to drive home the message that high oil prices will affect everyone.

Only when policy-makers demonstrate their resolve to expedite energy-related reforms with concrete measures will the country's producers, enterprises and consumers wake up to reality.

It is a pressing matter, but few seem to recognize the urgency yet.

A key reason why the world economy is managing to shrug off high oil prices is because many developed economies have substantially reduced their oil dependency by continuously improving their energy efficiency.

China has to realize that the energy it needs to produce one unit of gross domestic product (GDP) is about twice what developed economies need. This disadvantage can also be viewed as an opportunity, but immediate action needs to be taken in order to exploit it.

Oil price hikes have made other new and clean energy sources a viable option. When people talk about alternative energy, however, they do not mean coal, which largely underpins China's self- sufficient energy reserves.

The human and environmental costs the country has paid for coal mining in recent years will be unaffordable in the future.

The Chinese economy is bound to bear the brunt of high oil prices.

Extensive growth is still a drag on the country's efforts to improve energy efficiency, but economic globalization has made China an emerging world manufacturing centre. This puts even more pressure on the country's energy reserves.

Unfortunately, the government's response to failed oil supplies in South China last month indicated a lack of clear thinking on the energy issue.

Instead of inflating domestic oil prices to encourage supply, which remain low compared with world oil prices, the relevant departments have decided to stop domestic producers from exporting oil at higher costs.

The inflation concern behind these moves is valid, but these stopgap measures will only postpone necessary adjustments to the domestic energy market while doing nothing to address the underlying cause of inflation.

To rise to the challenge of high oil prices, policy-makers must acknowledge today's reality, as well as the inevitable trends of tomorrow.