Posted on 07/13/2005 7:07:26 PM PDT by Happy2BMe
WASHINGTON -- A Chinese company's attempt to take over California-based Unocal threatens U.S. security and would give China political leverage in areas where the oil company has resources, lawmakers said Wednesday.
"The simple fact is that energy is a strategic commodity," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter, R-Calif., said Unocal's holdings _ from drilling rights to exploratory capabilities in Asia and elsewhere _ "represent strategic assets that affect U.S. national security."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
(Meanwhile the trade deficit continues to shoot out of the galaxy with China and millions of Mexican illegal aliens continue to invade from the South . .)
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"The simple fact is that energy is a strategic commodity,"
...immorality gone wild. After that and several other bad moves on the part of our "elite," what should we moral conservatives do?
Churchgoers Are Most Interested in Supreme Court Openings - Religious People Have Highest Concerns.
So the greenback only buys things when it is held by an American? Oil is a startegic interest of US as long as it is allowed to trade freely - If Unocal were truly as strategic as Duncan thinks - maybe he should propose Iraq as 51st state.
I guess all the talk about getting China and others to respect WTO and IP rules goes out the window when they show up with loads of US cash! Remember when the Japanese bought Rockefellar Center? That sure was a disaster... for the Japanese! I suspect Duncan plays the xenophobia card a little too loudly.
HINT: Oil
And you think they could cart it all up and move it to China? Kind of hard to do.
ANSWER: Arabs
Well, we could round up about 20,000 or so true conservatives and over-run Wyoming or New Hampshire and set up our own govt... sounds pretty familiar...
Your answer is to simple - IF California had less restrictive laws governing refineries and oil exploration and IF management at Unocal were even a little better at their job - then Unocal might have a shot in our competitve world. Instead Duncan wants to divert blame from failed policies and blame the Chinese. We can all agree to be 'nimby's in California - but if we go to far we will lose jobs and ultimately companies.
Chevron-Texaco can buy Unocal.
Chinese ownership of the company is insanity.
You guys got our W-88 MIRV's and any number of other defense secrets illegally.
Don't blame Americans if we are awaking to the true threat you represent.
I also think we should dig up some of the Lance missiles we dismantled in the eighties and offer them to Taiwan for her homeland defense against Red Chinese aggression.
We love your people but hate your government.
If China were truly free and truly a friendly power we would have no objections to her purchase of Unocal.
I oppose all forms of government ownership of enterprise, foriegn or domestic.
Rather, if the company buying it were owned by shareholders, then it would be no problem. That it's owned by a heavily subsidized state-owned enterprise makes it against our interests.
I agree with you in principle - but the measure of government control in a company is a slippery slope. Subsidy, tax incentives, labor regulation, etc ... also who is best judge? It is clear tha CNOOC is overly Chinese gov't controlled - but maybe a condition of sale should be less such control?
My larger issue is that people like Duncan tend to look for scapegoats and want to blame all others before any Americans. Look who just went to jail today for 25 years? After so many American companies with so much massive fraud - it is easy to say that there may have been too little gov't control!! NOT that I want more but ...
A hostile, "heaviliy subsidized, state-owned enterprise," no less. Not to mention an exponentially expanding and increasingly-capable military and economic base.
True, but 70% government ownership is pretty darn unambiguous.
also who is best judge?
Not sure, but this case is pretty easy to judge, so it doesn't matter.
It is clear tha CNOOC is overly Chinese gov't controlled - but maybe a condition of sale should be less such control?
For starters, there should be a law that no company incorporated within the United States may be sold to any foreign entity in which any government owns any equity.
Otherwise is to go down the road to socialism.
When a CEO has to answer to investors interested in earning a return, it puts some limits on his ability to indulge the empire-building tendencies all CEO's share. Not so when the largest shareholder, i.e. the Chinese government, is also more interested in building empires than making money.
Precisely.
This isn't about businessmen making a profitable deal. This is about a state positioning itself to win World War 3.
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