Dateline: above the garage, Portsmouth RI, 10 July 2005
Spoke with this guy during drive back from son Kev's camp last week. It yields one quote, but a signature one for me, so I'm happy.
China politics overshadow Unocal bidBy August Cole, MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:13 PM ET Jul 8, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Citgo Petroleum Corp., whose name decorates more than 13,000 gas stations in the U.S., has been owned by Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. since 1990.
DHL, with San Francisco roots and over $32 billion in sales last year shipping everything from business envelopes to care packages to overseas troops, was bought by Germany's Deutsche Post (555200) in 2002. And United Defense Industries, maker of the U.S. Army's mainstay Bradley armored vehicle, was just purchased by Britain's BAE Systems (BA) last month.
Such deals are nothing new. But none has stirred politicians, oil industry executives and foreign policy strategists like the attempt by state-controlled Chinese National Offshore Oil Company's Ltd. to snatch El Segundo, Calif.-based Unocal Corp. (UCL) from a Chevron Corp. (CVX) takeover.
The overture from China's biggest offshore oil and gas producer, known as CNOOC and listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "CEO" (CEO) , reveals Washington's ambiguous relationship with the Communist-led giant. While portraying China as a growing threat is useful when justifying big-ticket defense programs or protectionist trade policies, the whopping trade deficit betrays just how much the U.S. relies on doing business across the Pacific.
"What you're looking at is the deep integration of our two economies that is indicative of the current era of globalization," said Thomas Barnett, a consultant who taught at the U.S. Naval War College and is the author of "The Pentagon's New Map." "What doesn't keep pace with that, and is the bugaboo for me, is the political or military understanding."
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