The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

…a Chinese company (read Chinese govt) tried to take over an Australian company and they were prevented and this led to the jailing of the Rio Tinto execs in China.

The Rio Tinto “espionage” case was tantamount to resource nationalism in reverse, IMO. I was astonished that Rio provided such minimal support for its employees and thereby encouraged the Chinese to proceed with this case. I think BHP and VALE would have handled things differently, but I might be biased because I am long those stocks but not Rio.

I think it is foolish to allow a foreign govt to buy companies in a second country. Is that also happening in the USA?

CNOOC tried to buy Unocal several years ago, but the deal was nixed by the US Congress. Since then, Chinese companies have settled for equity investments rather than outright takeovers. #msg-56388821 is a good background read.