Turn on the TV, and there’s always something new to fear. Not the really scary stuff, necessarily, like bombs in the subway (though the talking heads do their best to maximize those fears) but the daily sensations that are the lifeblood of cable TV: disappearing in Aruba, getting attacked by sharks–or being taken over by the Chinese.
The China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), 70 percent owned by the Chinese government, is putting in a bid for Unocal. Unocal had already agreed to being taken over by Chevron. But, as often happens when corporations start dating seriously, another suitor butted in. In this case, because China’s involved, the usual forces of nationalist fervor are up in arms.