The Agency for Crude oil estimates that China's imports or crude will increase 8 percent a year, a figure, more than twice the predicted rate of growth in global demand. To protect Chinese farmers, the group that has gained least from the economic reforms, and for fear of social unrest, the People's Congress has held the price of diesel at the pumps artificially low. These Price controls mean that Chinese state-owned refineries are losing vast sums of money supplying domestic markets. To offset these losses, the refinery managers must export fuel and, as a consequence, create the single most important cause of the chronic fuel shortages facing the domestic market of China. China's energy companies are desperately trying to resolve the issue by securing more suppliers of crude. Their greatest hope lies with Russia, which currently only supplies a small fraction of China's annual consumption. Chinese officials would dearly love a pipeline from the Siberian oilfields. But Russia is anxious to keep control of its export market and is understandably reluctant to provide its neighbor's refineries with oil, only to see it sold on to a third party in order to cross-subsidize the artificially low cost of fuel in China's domestic markets. Perhaps a more viable solution lies with a price increase in the cost of diesel in Chinese domestic markets. This might well mean that the current runaway demand will be curtailed Chinese refineries will be better able to supply their home markets.