China, especially, is a competitor with the US in petroleum purchases. India is coming up fast. Both of these countries are set to not only challenge the US, but overtake it -- technologically, educationally, in space, and just about any way you can think of.

When will China and India "rear end" the US? Best bets are by 2010 -- five years out. By 2020, the futurists (and I've been associating with some of the best recently) think that the US and the developed world will be on the back slope of a post-petroleum culture. In fact, they're predicting that the US will be in decline and China and India in ascendancy.

Heck, China owns something like 40% of the US debt anyway....