This is rampant, uninformed speculation but it will be interested in seeing how China, as a developing nation, handles their energy needs. Will they come up with alternatives to oil? Will they broaden their public transportation system or build a culture of automobile dependency? Last time I was in Beijing they seemed to be doing the latter. IMO they are in a good position to learn from USA’s mistakes and instead of building an oil-dependent nation they can build one on clean, atomic energy or some yet undiscovered, eco-friendly technologies.