An upward revision in China’s growth figures allowed it to leapfrog Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy in 2007. Now the Red Dragon is snapping at Japan’s heels in the quest to become No. 2 in the world’s economic pecking order.

As crude oil prices smash the $135-a-barrel barrier for the first time, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia say they will take action to protect their state-owned oil companies.

“If oil prices keep going up, it is simply not in any country’s best interest to keep subsidizing these prices indefinitely,” says Peter Gastreich, a UBS oil and gas analyst, in the Financial Times.