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Alternet: The Dragon Chases Oil

In 2004, China's oil consumption increased by 40 percent, to 6.5 million barrels a day. U.S. domestic demand is 20 million barrels a day. U.S. demand is increasing by about 500,000 barrels per day per year. China's is increasing by about 1.5 million barrels per day per year.

World oil production is straining now to satisfy growing world oil consumption. Both the U.S. and China are increasingly dependent on imported oil. Both are aggressively pursuing strategies to maintain their access to oil. To me it looks like China's strategy is more farsighted and coherent. While we've spent $300 billion to invade Iraq, have tried to overthrow the Chavez government in Venezuela, and now threaten Iran, China has quietly entered into long-term contracts with many of these countries. It has invested about $15 billion in foreign oil fields and expects to invest 10 times more over the next decade.

This explains why the U.S. is not interested in anything but democracy in Iraq. If only they could convert the massive amounts of altruism into energy.