ABSTRACT
As oil prices spiked toward US$75 a barrel in the summer of 2005, energy competition seemed poised to replace the war on terrorism as the focus of world attention. The New York Times deemed it appropriate to headline its lead story on Chinese president Hu Jintao’s April 2006 visit to the U.S.A., “China’s Big Need for Oil Is High On U.S. Agenda,”1 and two Chinese researchers entitled their article, published in Far Eastern Economic Review at the same time, “Will China Go To War Over Oil?”2 A cartoonist portrayed Uncle Sam and a generic Chinese leader of 2020 circling each other menacingly as each prepared to grab the last gallon of oil on Earth. While a Council on Foreign Relations/Baker Institute report observes that in fact the global hydrocarbon resource base remains enormous, it notes the potential for sudden, severe strains at critical links in the energy supply chain.3
