I think people are absolutely right when they say that we should not only research clean coal technology, but we should give it to China. Given that China (like the United States) consumes more oil than it produces and has huge domestic reserves of cheap coal, it's a given that the Chinese will continue to use coal for their energy far into the future. The Sino-American relationship in the 21st century will be a strangely symbiotic one, and I don't think that the United States will necessarily decline as some have predicted. From a certain point of view, our relations are reaching the apex of what American traders in the 19th century always wanted: an open China with a huge middle class that will demand American goods.
In order for that long-held dream to finally become a reality, it will be necessary to crack China's protectionist tendencies and its brilliant but short-sighted policy of having American industries produce products in China at the expense of the U.S. workforce.
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