Analyst Warns Against Letting China Buy U.S. Oil Company
by Chad Groening
July 1, 2005
(AgapePress) - One of the leading U.S. authorities on Communist China says there is no way the American government should allow the Beijing government to purchase a U.S. oil company. The Chinese government recently submitted an unsolicited $18.5 billion offer to purchase Unocal. China's bid was substantially higher than that of rival bidder Chevron.Steve Mosher of the Population Research Institute says U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has asked the Chinese a number of questions about its military buildup. Among these questions, he notes, are "Why are you building up your military so quickly? Why are you having double-digit increases in your military budget? Why are you continuing these large weapons purchases from Russia when no one threatens China?"
Mosher, who lived in China during part of the 1970s and 1980s, feels the U.S. should reject China's proposal outright. "This deal should be dead-on-arrival," he states bluntly. "There is no way that we should allow our country to become dependent [on China] in any way -- or more likely, to lose access to the oil supplies that Unocal controls."
Obtaining Unocal is part of the Chinese government's effort to control as much of the world's petroleum as it can, the PRI spokesman speculates. He sees the proposed acquisition as the next logical step in Beijing's long-term strategy to gobble up a lion's share of the world's petroleum supplies.
"China wants to become a major player in the world's energy supplies," Mosher says. "In fact, it wants to buy up and control as much of the world's petroleum as it can. That's why it's developing good relations with [President Hugo] Chavez down in Venezuela. That's why it has thousands of troops in the Sudan, to control [that country's] oil supply. And that's why the Chinese government wants to buy Unocal -- a major American oil company."
Mosher believes Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is right to express concern over China's military buildup. That is especially true, the PRI analyst notes, when that buildup could be fueled in part by U.S. oil if the Unocal deal is approved.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
