Economics as national security - Part 2

The Chinese government sharply criticized the United States Monday for threatening to erect barriers aimed at preventing the attempted takeover of the American oil company Unocal Corp. by one of China's three largest energy firms, CNOOC Ltd.

Four days after the House overwhelmingly approved a resolution urging the Bush administration to block the proposed transaction as a threat to national security, China's Foreign Ministry excoriated Congress for injecting politics into what it characterized as a standard business matter.

"We demand that the U.S. Congress correct its mistaken ways of politicizing economic and trade issues and stop interfering in the normal commercial exchanges between enterprises of the two countries," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

[...]

CNOOC's bid has taken China across a new threshold: It has unleashed the first takeover battle between a Chinese company and a U.S. firm, the oil giant Chevron Corp., based in San Ramon, which has its own deal in hand to buy Unocal for $16.5 billion. If completed, CNOOC's purchase -- its bid is for $18.5 billion -- would stand as the largest foreign takeover by a Chinese firm.

  SF Gate article