OPEC meets w/ China

Chinese officials and OPEC representatives met recently, in a scene that must have been right out of the cantina on Tatooine in Star Wars.

China has, of course, turned into one of the world's largest consumers of OPEC petroleum. The Chinese are anxious to secure supplies of energy, and the OPEC folks are interested in further developing what could easily be the largest energy market in the world.

Neither the Chinese nor the Arabs are noted for their acceptance of "foreigners", and it's hard to imagine two more different cultures. The Chinese have been repressing their Muslim Uighur minority for decades, at times brutally.

Business sure does make for strange bedfellows, doesn't it?

For the umpteenth time, wouldn't it be just wonderful to develop some alternative forms of energy, so that the whole world could tell OPEC to shove it up their wazoos.