Economics - China vs USA - The Battle for Oil

China is perhaps too different from the US culturally and not different enough ideologically for there to be an immediate threat of actual war, however history shows that competition for natural resources tends to cause conflict. For now, its more natural to secure a beachhead for access to oil resources by fighting against people who are both close enough and just different enough for there to be natural animosity. We fight people who believe in another branch of the Abrahamic religion, Islam rather than Christianity. In the global scheme of things, this is a hair splitting difference not dissimilar from Shia vs Sunni. These people have the resources that the US may eventually end up at war with China over. Places that have wealth built on natural resources favor bullies who can grab it rather than the educated who have an upper hand when wealth needs to be created rather than mined. Places rich in natural resources: The Democratic Republic of the Congo Saudi Arabia and Texas are therefore inherently pugnacious and anti-intellectual. From these places fighting springs naturally. Today, China is the second largest consumer of oil, just after the United States. But with one of the highest rates of growth on the planet, its energy needs are increasing seven times faster, while its reserves are depleting. China is unable to produce the oil it needs today. It has to import half of it. In the next three years this number will increase to two-thirds, if not its whole economy will collapse. Lacking its own source of oil, China is dependent on the rest of the world. Hence its imperative to find new countries to provide it and secure these supplies in an increasingly unstable world. In this crusade for black gold, China is already in direct conflict with the current greatest consumer of the worlds oil: the United States. Battle for Oil investigates the new world geopolitics that is emerging around the needs of both the worlds leading superpower and the worlds fastest growing economy to secure future supplies of oil. Chinese oil companies are signing deals in countries like Venezuela, Iran, Sudan, Chad and Angola. In exchange, China has given its support to these countries, either building infrastructure or using its influence to support them at the United Nations. Now, U.S. companies are finding that doing business in some oil producing markets is rapidly changing.