CHINA MOVES AHEAD ON CLEAN ENERGY 247 man in Mainland China. Shi was unquestionably brilliant, but he was only one among an increasing number of stars in China to make their fortune by envisioning the future of energy. The Possibilities of Energy Energy is the key to economic power, and it is economic power that places nations in a dominant position on the international stage. If the late 20th century made oil king, it is still too early to tell what form of energy will finally dominate the 21st century. For the Chinese, it is obvious that the American economic model, which relies on exploiting roughly a fourth of the world's energy to satisfy the consumer appetites of less than 6 percent of the world's population, is clearly not an option. The West, with its elab- orate infrastructure already in place, is understandably reluctant to think about what will happen when the oil runs out, but China is