News

September 19, 2008

Coca Cola May Find The Chinese Less Than Enthusiastic About Its Bid For Huiyuan Juice

By Charles Wyatt

The Chinese have long memories for anything perceived as a slight and the fact that the Chinese oil company CNOOC Ltd was forced by politicians in Washington to withdraw its US$18.5 million bid for Unocal Corporation was seen as more of an insult than a mere slight. The reasons the US politicians gave back in 2005 was that such a deal could threaten U.S. national security and violate the rules of fair trade. Viewed from a current standpoint this is complete rubbish, but you can imagine the national pride glowing on the faces of the politicians as they saluted the Stars and Stripes and voted away an excellent deal for Unocal shareholders. The Chinese Government, after all, had a 70 per cent holding in CNOOC and admitted at the time that the bid could have been increased if the opposition had not been so bitter.

Now they have a rather better idea of just how powerful China has become on the world stage though a goodly percentage of the US population hates to admit it. Experts said at the time that  CNOOC's withdrawal would lessen Chinese interest in future deals with U.S. companies and stiffen its resistance to other priorities of the Bush administration and Congress, such as allowing further appreciation in the value of the Chinese currency. What it certainly did was increase China's interest in...