ibenez wrote:

Three is nothing wrong with this. Let them control the oil, they will always need to sell it to us. If they don't sell it to us, we'll seize the company's assets (so sorry China).

Same goes for France's Airbus USAF contract bid. Not a problem.

The thing noone seems to mention here is - the power of the American consumer controls everything.

Even if oil prices did boil down entirely to buying power, China's energy requirements will outstrip the US' in a matter of years. Their rampant population growth coupled with a obsessive desire to "be like the West" pits their middle class on the verge of an explosive consuming force. AND, China doesn't give a shit about controlling governments in far off lands so long as their staggering energy needs are met. So, who has the greater power: China, at 1.44 billion people in 2025, or the US, at 350 million (or 24% of China's population)?*

The answer to the riddle of world energy powers isn't _consumption_ but _reduction_. Whosoever can beat the exponential growth of population with a low-sloping linear growth in energy consumption wins.

BTW: Everyone should read "Resource Wars". 1997 wasn't that long ago, and the book will open your eyes with facts and figures, not baseless conjecture. It will make you think twice about everything, even whether to buy that incandescent bulb (which puts out 9 times more heat than light) or a 5-year compact fluourescent with an energy efficiency 5 times that of the century-old incandescent technology.

-janelane, realistically

*http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp

RE: CNOOC: Unocal Bid Not About Politics - Yahoo! News