On February 3, the United States Cabinet and the ExxonMobil Board of Directors held an open door meeting to discuss expansion of oil drilling to global markets. At the same time, Chinese leaders discussed dealing with their oil crisis caused by the Russo-Ukrainian War. However, the nations’ approaches to dealing with opposition have starkly differed.
An ExxonMobil executive who wished to remain anonymous acknowledged that protests over the private deal may erupt. “We can’t stop protests from happening,” said the executive. “So we need to address the volatility of them by working with their demands.” American secretaries have also discussed how they will address protests. “We do not want to create a monopoly with our deal,” said the CIA Director. “So if protests erupt, we’ll need to address that.”
While Chinese leaders have openly welcomed protests, they have explained mass arrests of protestors. “We have no knowledge of unjust detaining,” said Finance Minister Liu Kun. “The only reason protestors were arrested was for sedition and treason, and we want to speak to the leaders directly.” Culture and Tourism Minister Hu Heping also outlined her concern with free press reporting on the protests. “There is a massive security issue with private press,” she said. “Government owned does not mean unfree.”
ExxonMobil secretaries admitted their frustration with protests nonetheless. “Protestors don’t know what they want from ExxonMobil,” said the anonymous secretary. “We know what we want.” Various Cabinet members discussed how ExxonMobil will expand drilling in untapped markets with a goal of making American markets more competitive than Russian and Chinese markets. The executive further discussed his wishes to achieve what the public desires, a sentiment echoed by executive LD DuCharme. “We want to also invest into biofuels,” she said.
In the meeting between the US government and ExxonMobil, the Treasury Secretary specifically mentioned ExxonMobil’s commitment to sustainability as the reason for working with them. “We need to keep competition up,” said the Secretary. “If Exxon violates our deal or US laws, the deal is over.”
Chinese officials have remained mum on expanding oil drilling amongst mass protests in the country. Finance minister Liu Kun explained his hesitancy on action. “We want to keep our neutrality,” he explained. “So it’s difficult to say where our oil will come from.” However, the United States Treasury Secretary was clear. “Nothing is more valuable to the US than oil,” he said.
