Does it Matter?

The Washington Times
China companies target brand names / Chris Baker

Chinese companies, which already own the companies that make IBM personal computers and RCA televisions, are trying to add more familiar brands to their arsenal, as seen in offers this week to buy Maytag Corp. and energy company Unocal Corp.

Yes, I think it does matter:

(1.) CNOOC Tries to Ease U.S. Worries on Unocal
By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) - Trying to allay U.S. national security worries about its bid for Unocal Corp. (UCL), Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC Ltd. (CEO) said Friday it was willing to discuss selling some Unocal assets and putting others under American management.

The announcement came after four members of Congress called on the U.S. government on Thursday to review the security implications of allowing a Chinese state-controlled firm to take control of the ninth-largest American oil producer.

(2.) Chinese Bidder for Unocal Faces Obstacles
By GARY GENTILE

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Whether the purchase of Unocal Corp. by the Chinese would pose a risk to U.S. security is just one of many hurdles the proposed $18.5 billion offer by China's state-owned CNOOC Ltd. must overcome.

A letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow was circulating in Congress on Thursday calling on the Bush administration to investigate the national security implications of the proposed deal. It was signed by Reps. William J. Jefferson, D-La.; Al Green, D-Texas; Bobby Jindal, R-La.; and Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

Snow, who chairs a federal panel that considers security risks of foreign firms buying or investing in U.S. companies, told a Senate Finance Committee hearing on China's currency system that he expects both parties to voluntarily submit to a review.

"It's not a business transaction at all," C. Richard D'Amato, chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressional advisory panel, said Thursday. "This is not a free market deal. This is the Chinese government acquiring energy resources." (Emphasis added.)

(3.) Unocal bid pours oil on China-U.S. political fire
By Paul Eckert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deep misgivings about China's rising economic and political clout have helped fuel political resistance to a major Chinese oil company's bid to buy U.S. producer Unocal, experts said on Friday.

State-owned CNOOC Ltd.'s $18.5 billion bid for Unocal Corp. on Wednesday, topping Chevron Corp.'s roughly $16.4 billion offer, came under swift fire from U.S. lawmakers, who are calling for stringent investigations into the transaction even before a deal is reached.

The Unocal issue arises at a time of record oil prices, unease over China's $160 billion trade surplus with the United States and an appetite in Congress to punish China with tariffs unless it revalues its currency.

U.S. defense officials are embroiled in a debate over how to evaluate China's military. The Pentagon's annual report on China's military modernization has been delayed for weeks in an apparent dispute over how stark a picture to present.

Mikkal Herberg, an analyst at the National Bureau of Asian Research in Seattle, said there were solid reasons to examine the financing of the Chinese firm's bid and ask whether it was a commercial transaction or an effort to corner oil supplies.

At a time when when gas and oil prices are at, or nearly at, all time highs, and people of all political stripes are complaining, and justifiably so, about being "dependent" on foreign oil, why should a transaction of this kind be good for the American people?