One year ago, the financial crisis shocked the world and dragged it into an atmosphere of decline. But now, new energy lights the world, and it is bringing the world into a time of change.

Ever since the Obama administration came into power, the world was reawakened to the expectation for a clean energy future. The American government has also been undertaking a series of activities and processes in this regard, creating hope that the Kyoto Protocol will be signed by the U.S.

At the same time, with the fast development of its economy, China has been one of the biggest consuming nations in the world, and its consumption of traditional energies has been going up dramatically, arousing a lot of problems concerning the sustainable economic development. Additionally, the efficient exploitation and fixed amount of nonrenewable resources have already become the main obstacles for further development, not only in China but also in other nations of the world.

Every nation, including the U.S. and China, has to redefine the roles of resources that can be used for economic development, and the process of new resource policy making should be framed within a clean-energy economic and social development. In doing so, the use of hydro, nuclear, solar and wind power would have a promising future.

While addressing the UN climate change summit in New York on September 22 of this year, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that China will seek to produce 15 percent of its energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2020, and much of that will come from renewable energy and nuclear power. The nation also plans to battle climate change by planting more trees and increasing forested areas by 40 million hectares.

However, the increase of the renewable resource rate demands further explanations, evolving in turn into a key issue for China, which concerns its new strategy in international relations. In fact, new energy still remains at relatively low levels of economic development in China and rest of the world. The usage rate of traditional resources at present suggests that they are still listed as the primary method.

As far as this is concerned, there are two aspects on new energies that deserve our attention. First, the aim of promoting new energy is to meet the need of economic development and put forward the new direction of development in the long run, based on China's current reality of renewable resources. Second, the development of new energy is regarded as an issue of China's national strategy in international relations.

China now has no equal footing in making the rules for international political and economic affairs. In that respect, it is a newcomer in dealing with multinational affairs and influencing the rules of international relations. However, the financial crisis the world is experiencing provides a special opportunity for China to be more active in setting the standards for international economic affairs. In this sense, we can say that wind power, solar power, bio-fuels and others are more than just alternative sources of energy. China needs these "new energies" to improve the nation's ability to be immersed in international pursuits.

Therefore, renewable resources are the new energies for the world, and for China, the opportunity to make changes in international strategy.