HONG KONG -- In quick succession, the previously intangible reality of "China Rising" has taken on tangible form for Americans, as China has used the wealth that has accrued as a result of its rapid development and huge trade surpluses to try and takeover three U.S. businesses.
The Chinese firm Lenovo paid $1.75 billion for the personal-computers division of IBM. Basically the deal raised eyebrows, but did not arouse too much of a fuss. Next, the largest Chinese manufacturer of home appliances, the Haier Group, offered $1.3 billion to buy the well-established but now ailing American appliance-maker Maytag. Since Maytag had already agreed to a takeover by Ripplewood Holdings of New York for $1.13 billion, a takeover battle is in prospect.
As it turned out, Lenovo and Haier were merely the prelude before the storm. On June 22, the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of the wholly state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), launched an all-cash $18.5 billion takeover bid for Unocal, a California-based oil and gas group. This will also be a contested takeover, since Unocal has tentatively finalized a takeover by the U.S. oil company Chevron, also California-based, for $16.4 billion in shares and cash.