Backlash ends Chinese bid for Unocal
China's CNOOC Ltd. on Tuesday abandoned a bold $18.5 billion offer to acquire Unocal Corp. (UCL) in the face of strident political opposition
This generated enough of an uproar, that the ChiComs' CNOOC gave up on trying to snarf up UNOCAL in an $18B+ deal. IT seems that lots of folks here felt pretty queasy about this one, and that concern managed to penetrate into Congress and elsewhere in D.C. Finally the ChiComs decided that it was more trouble than it was worth.
The Chief has a hunch that there's a bit more to it than that - perhaps the backdown was to keep us from getting too riled up at them before they're ready for their moves on Taiwan. In other words, they want to keep the sleeping giant asleep. Hopefully it doesn't work out for them that way.