China's desperate quest for oil - Can America Compete? - MSNBC.com

China's desperate quest for oil - Can America Compete? - MSNBC.com: "In a nod to the building frictions, Washington and Beijing set up extensive bilateral energy talks between the Department of Energy and its Chinese counterparts in 2004, with discussion on ways of increasing energy efficiency in China, cleaner coal technology and reforming the power sector. In this and other forums, China has been pursuaded to set up a strategic petroleum reserve to hedge against supply disruptions and emergencies. Although cooperation will be key to averting conflict, the underlying distrust is likely to persist, says University of Miami's Teufel Dreyer in a new paper on China's energy sector: 'Just as many Chinese are concerned that Washington uses a desire to establish democracy to disguise its desire for hegemony and many Americans believe that Beijing talks about a China that is peacefully rising while providing its military with unjustifiably large annual budget increases, each side worries that gestures of cooperation may disguise an intent to block oil supplies to the other.'" May 4, 2006