2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-China Invests in Canadian Energy Sector

…in a few minutes, getting back to business in New Orleans, but first to international business. A Chinese bid to buy the US oil company Unocal earlier this year caused quite a stir. Some people questioned the wisdom of letting foreigners control an American oil company. But in Canada, which is the largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, the Chinese have recently been snapping up oil companies. Richard Reynolds reports from Toronto.

Several media pundits 1 here have dubbed 2 this--the Year of the Chinese Takeover. Canadians really began to notice in June when the Chinese Government-owned company Minmetals made a bid for Noranda, one of Canada's largest mining companies. This came on the heels of a 2-billion-dollar investment by the Chinese National Overseas Oil Company or CNOOC into Canada's oil sands. Andrew Willis is one of Canada's leading business journalists. He writes for the Global Mail newspaper.

There you had the premier 3 Canadian mining company but suddenly / was goning to pass into Chinese control and I think the startling thing for all of us who date back to an era when Canada was vehemently 4 protectionist was the fact first of all the public didn't seem to mind at all. The secondly 5 the government was willing, quite willing to, uh, let that deal go through with absolutely no problem.

The deal later fell apart over the question of price. Attention was focused even more in June when the Chinese signed a memorandum 6 of understanding to take half the capacity of a new pipeline 7 being built from the oil fields of Alberta to the Pacific Coast and again when CNOOC took over oil firm Petrol Kazakhstan for 3.75 billion dollars in late August. The Noranda bid did generate some protest but the more recent deals went through with hardly any. Andrew Willis.

There is a sense of trying to connect China’s record on human rights and you know, China’s behavior in Tibet for example with the Noranda purchase. And it was a difficult argument to make right from the start. So after a day or two of strife 8 and blasting and trying to connect, what really is seen by most Canadians as unconnected issues, the issue faded away.

This is in sharp contrast to the US response over the proposed takeover of Unocal. US law makers 9 including Republican congressman 10 Richard Pombo of California backed a measure that delays any Chinese acquisition of a US oil company for at least 120 days. The measure was included in the energy bill, which was signed into law last month. In the end, CNOOC abandoned its takeover. In contrast, the Canadian government has thrown the doors wide open to investment from China. This past January, Prime Minister Paul Martin even signed a statement of cooperation with the Chinese that dealt with investment in the oil and resource sectors 11. Industry Minister, David Anderson.

The government of Canada has taken the position that we do want an increase in the international investment into Canada and China is certainly one of the countries that we hope to see an intensification 12 of our economic relationship with.

But energy and resources are central to the Chinese overseas investment strategy. Walid Hejazi is a professor at Toronto's Rotman School of Business and an expert on China. He explains that China has over 800 billion dollars in foreign currency reserves and its economy is growing so fast, it has an almost unquenchable thirst for raw materials.

So it's a very forward-looking strategy on the part of the Chinese to take this 800 billion dollars and growing reserve of US money to deploy 13 those resources as strategically as possible in order to ensure the growth of their industry in a smooth possible way.

Canada is one of the world's larger oil producers but it's also rich in coal, iron, copper 14, nickel, zinc 15, uranium and lumber 16, all material the Chinese need. And as Loren Brandt, an economist 17 of the University of Toronto explains, Canada is also safe.

The Chinese are looking all over for resources, they are looking in Africa, they are looking in Latin America, they are looking in South America, Australia, Canada. They are looking in Russia. And so, you know, some of those, those countries I have just mentioned are potentially risky 18, very risky.

If Canada is a target for the Chinese, should the US be concerned? Canada is a natural resources storehouse for the US economy. Walid Hejazi believes, as do many Canadian experts , that the US just takes Canadian oil and resources for granted, often forgetting that Canada is the largest and the most stable provider of oil to the US.

For many, many years, the Americans just believe that all of this energy is available in Canada, we can get access to all of this energy, and now you have the Chinese trying to get access to not just energy in Asia, or in the Middle East, but also in Canada, and I think that's a real threat to the Americans.

Hejazi also believes this is just the beginning. He expects a huge surge of investment overseas by the Chinese in the next few years. Media reports indicate the Chinese may be planning a bid for Husky Oil, one of Canada's largest oil companies and already owned by Hong Kong billionaire Li Kashing.

For NPR news, I'm Richard Reynolds in Toronto.