China already has a huge impact on the price of oil. The Chineese are competing directy with the West for an ever tightening supply of oil around the world. Their consumption of oil is poised to skyrocket over the coming decade as hundreds of millions of Chinese buy cars and adopt many of the energy intensive luxuries of the West. The economies of China and India are the fastest growing in the world. That growth depends on an every increasing flow of oil. As oil production falls behind demand the competition for available petroleum will become dangerously intense.

Insofar as China's role in the search for alternative sources of energy, they will undoubtedly play a major role. However, their participation will not alter the fact that the world is on the brink of declining sources of useable energy and will be forced to make some difficult adjustments in the near future.