Why blame the Chinese on the gas price?

Question

A few days back, I was talking to my Taiwanese friend. We were discussing the rise of gas prices and he said "It is because of the chinese in China. There are so many cars and they need gas".

I was shocked that he would make such accusation. What do you think?

Answer 1

World demand is getting higher for oil, supply isn't keeping up. China's rapid economic growth is a major reason for the increased demand. It's not about blame; China's just trying to modernize, which has the unfortunate effect of higher energy prices.

Answer 2

Your friend is completely wrong. As I am writing this, the USA still leads the world for oil consumption, at a whopping 20,730,000 bbl/day!!!!!

Far behind, you will find China at 6,534,000 bbl/day. With more than 4 times the population of the USA, China still consumes less than one quarter of what the USA does. Japan is not far behind, at 5,578,000 bbl/day.

But if China's economic growth continues at this rate, which is very likely, things will change significantly. But no one can refuse China the right to grow, we in the West, and in particular in the USA, have enjoyed a quasi-monopoly over world's resources in the past 100 years, we have raped, pillaged and over-exploited all corners of the earth so that we can now sit comfortably in our complacency and point the finger at emerging giants like China and India and other developing nations who have billions of people who are hoping for a better life. This is their absolute right. Our duty is to help them grow but at the same time assist them in developing better technologies and more sustainable environmental management and practices.

Answer 3

Let us not compare countries, instead let us picture the world. Let us not blame the country who has the highest demand on oil but rather consider those people who use oil for no good reasons. China is just trying to provide her people the supply they need just like any other countries would do.
Let us put it in this case:
A lot of people would blame others of something they are not perfect doing with. But only a few would consider whether they are doing their own part. Do you think you are doing yours?

Answer 4

China consums more and more driving up the prices of many things like oil, concrete, drywall and other things, so, yes, China is part of the problem as well as many other countries, we ALL need to learn to consume less

Answer 5

Aren't you reading world news?
Probably your friends knew China consume fossil fuel very much. The buying power of oil raise the market price.
And China don't have or adopt efficient environmental technologies, such as the tech of renewable energy, solar battery panels and hybrid engines, so much. In fact. China now is No.1 in CO2 emissions in the world.
http://www.mnp.nl/en/dossiers/Climatechange/moreinfo/Chinanowno1inCO2emissionsUSAinsecondposition.html

But China signed the Kyoto Protocol. That's good.
21st century would be tough era for every developing nations.