From the Star of Lebanon today, another good summary on the future US/UK versus China conflict over oil, and how China is moving into the Middle East and Africa.
Neither presidential candidate seems to be connecting the
dots…is this true, or is it they don’t want to share this issue
with the public?
There is a profound strategic issue here, and it makes the handling of the genocide in Sudan crucial.
China is putting together a bloc of nations–with Sudan as the
base of operations in Africa–that includes the Saudis, Iranians,
and so on–that will supply it with oil in trade for both cash
and–key–weapons and weapons manufacturing capability.
There is a new cold war, it seems, with China as the adversary, and oil as the issue.
We need to “help” the Chinese
understand that they cannot export their human rights abusing policies
to this bloc–that the world expects more of them–and that as
their major trading partner, we care–and we have leverage.
“China has already deployed 4,000 troops to Sudan. But those troops
are there only to protect China’s investment in an oil pipeline.” Newsday this morning.
A very clear and important piece from Newsday this morning on China’s huge thirst for oil, and China’s Middle Eastern/African strategy involving Saudi Arabia as well as Sudan. More perspective on the “Genocide Bloc.” Both presidential campaigns should see this article–as should every US Senator. Excerpts follow:
Already, China has overtaken Japan as the world’s second biggest
importer of oil, after the United States. And its appetite is huge and
growing. As Daniel Yergin of Cambridge Energy Research Associates puts
it, “China has gone from being a minor player in world commodity
markets, if a player at all, to being the decisive dynamic factor
today. In terms of oil, 40 percent of the entire growth in oil demand
since the year 2000 has been China.”
In this quarter alone, China’s demand for oil is projected to
increase 21 percent. That follows a 19-percent increase during the
first quarter of this year.
..Just 10 years ago, China was self-sufficient in oil and actually
exported small quantities to other Asian nations. Now, imports account
for more than one- third of Chinese oil consumption. And rather than
relying on foreign oil companies to supply it with oil, China wants its
own oil firms to go directly overseas to secure supply sources it can
exploit itself.
Clash with U.S. in Mideast
This is where China’s quest for more oil will come directly in
conflict with the concerns of U.S. foreign policy — particularly in
the Middle East.
During the Cold War, China stayed away from the Middle East. That
region’s geographic distance and political instability deterred it from
securing ties with its major oil-exporting nations and, at least until
a decade ago, the old China of ox carts and bicycles did not need to
import oil.
But now the Middle East and relations with oil-producing
nations have become key interests in China’s foreign policy, perhaps
second only to its obsession with Taiwan.
Exploring the world
Today, nearly 60 percent of China’s oil imports come from that region. Through
bilateral agreements, rather than international mechanisms, and using
arms sales and dual-use technology transfers — nuclear equipment,
guidance systems for missiles — to cement ties, China has obtained oil
exploration and exploitation rights in some of the most turbulent
nations in the Middle East and North Africa — Iran, Sudan, Libya,
Algeria and, until the recent war, Iraq.
The case of Sudan, where international concern for the humanitarian
disaster in the Darfur region is intensifying, puts China’s role in
perspective. It illustrates how Beijing’s oil interests could come in
direct conflict with U.S. policy.
Chinese troops in Sudan
While Washington has begged the world — and pressured the
United Nations Security Council — to send peacekeeping troops to Sudan
to quell the sectarian fighting that has put a million refugees at
risk, China has already deployed 4,000 troops to Sudan. But those
troops are there only to protect China’s investment in an oil pipeline.
China is concerned that civil unrest could wreck the oil project. It
has actually been hostile to U.S. pressure to impose economic sanctions
on the Arab government in Khartoum, a key Chinese client, buyer of
Chinese arms and partner in oil exploration.
It was also telling that China was a major opponent at the Security
Council of the war against Iraq, in large part because China had
obtained prospective contracts with Saddam Hussein for exclusive
exploitation of some oil fields. But perhaps the most
worrisome prospect for U.S. policymakers is China’s burgeoning attempt
to secure ties with Saudi Arabia, the world’s arbiter of the oil
market, taking advantage of the Saudi regime’s tensions with Washington
since the 9/11 attacks.
All these are disquieting harbingers of Beijing’s coming conflict
with the United States over oil. It will come sooner than expected and
the United States is not prepared for it. This president or his
successor must, at the very least, alert the nation about its
consequences, initiate a national conversation about it and encourage a
program of energy conservation to alleviate the obvious economic
pressures we will all face.
