@Rory_Johnston China is rumored to have built up colossal strategic oil reserves to ensure a complete blockade for a year and a half in the event of a war in Taiwan.
@Rory_Johnston Looking at the consumption of strategic oil reserves in the US and Japan, the current situation could easily continue until the November elections.
Yes, this is true, but it must also be acknowledged that there is little available data. China's decline in oil imports can be explained by the fact that they are emptying underground storage facilities for oil and finished products, which are poorly tracked by satellites, and have also switched to using coal in the energy and chemical industries.
The problem with Britain is that it has created a proliferation of lazy freeloaders and parasites at the expense of the working middle class.
Office for National Statistics โ โEffects of taxes and benefits on UK household income: financial year ending 2024โ, released 25 September 2025. It says 53.3% of people in the UK lived in households that received more in benefits โ cash benefits and benefits in kind โ than they paid in direct and indirect taxes in FYE 2024.
@ALikhodedov For a global commodity like oil, demand destruction will occur inversely proportional to the population's nominal income, so I wouldn't be surprised if oil consumption in poor countries falls many times more than in the US.