China is the largest energy consumer in the world. Identifying China's energy consumption pathways at sectoral levels provides critical information to support energy efficiency improvements, reduce total energy consumption and address issues of access and equity. This study evaluates China's energy footprint based on multi-regional input-output analysis at sectoral level from 1995 to 2009. The foreign and domestic dependency of China's energy footprint is investigated at sectoral level as well. The main results show that the percentage of China's energy footprint to the total global energy footprint increased from 7.6% in 1995 to 15.2% in 2009. China's sector c18, which relates to the sale of Motor Vehicles, Motorcycles and fuel, is the top energy consuming sector over the study period. At a sub-sectoral level, the dominant energy pathway contributing to c18 is China's sub-sectoral c17 (Energy supply sector); c8 (Energy refined sector); c12 (Metal sector); c11 (Other Non-Metallic Mineral sector); Korea's sectoral c9 (Chemical sector) and c8 (Energy refined sector) and Russia's sectoral c17 (Energy supply sector). In terms of dependency on other countries, China's energy footprint network depends most on Russia, USA and Germany. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.