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■"Meet China Inc.: Topping Japan Inc. of 1980s: Corporate China Shows Muscle As Host of Global Bids Emerge, Marking Only Start of Deal Flow," by Henry Sender, Wall Street Journal, 24 June 2005, p. C1.
■"Buying Sprees By China Firms Is a Bet on Value Of U.S. Brands," by Geoffrey A. Fowler, Wall Street Journal, 24 June 2005, p. B1.
■"Unocal Sale Could Signal New Directions: Purchase of U.S. Company by Chinese Firm Is Seen as Shift in Investment Approach," by Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal, 24 June 2005, p. A10.
■"Oil Battle Sets Showdown Over China: CNOOC's Offer For Unocal Raises Stakes in Conflict Over Sino-U.S. Ties; Threat, Rival or Vast Market?" by Neil King, Jr., Greg Hitt and Jeffrey Ball, Wall Street Journal, 24 June 2005, p. A1.
WSJ with a slew of articles Friday that really dissect the larger meaning of CNOOC's bid for UNOCAL. The bid is not as weird as it might seem, because most of UNOCAL's assets are in Asia or Asian focused in service. Plus, it ain't exactly a nasty battle between Chevron (other suitor) and CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corp), because they partner on other deals in China and Asia.
Larger reality is that China will naturally move into oil industry in big way, both uptream (exploration and production) and downstream (refining and distribution), because of its skyrocketing demand for oil. Even larger reality is that the huge trade surplus creates large dollar reserves, and after you buy as many US T-bills as possible, and pour so much into the secondary mortgage here that it may be fueling the real estate bubble just a bit too much, the next logical step in deeper connectivity with the trading partner is too use those funds to buy companies. This is exactly what Japan did way back when, freaking us then too (they were going to "own" all of America).
But buying American means China intertwines its economic fate with ours even more, by trusting the lasting appeal of U.S. brands that sell--not too surprisingly--mostly to American consumers.
Threat or rival or opportunity? It's simply better for China's rising economy to become more connected to ours. They benefit. We benefit. The world benefits. My man Alan Greenspan is a long-time backer of the notion that China and U.S. must come closer together economically. Watch for him to dampen the typically idiotic response out of Congress to try and stop this bid, which could easily fail on its own because Chevron is already on the inside track to closing this deal.
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