Perhaps Unocal believed that the Chinese bid was based on worthless Yuans.
No. The Chinese were offering good money.
In fact, the U.S. is being financed by the China, which is buying U.S. treasuries like crazy (a big reason long term interest rates are so low and housing prices so high).
The ostensible reason for not choosing the higher Chinese bid is that it would take longer to get gov't approval--more red tape because the buyer is foreign or something like that.
But I don't think that's the whole story.
I think the powers that be don't want China to buy that company.
Perhaps there were strong hints from the government that the red tape might take especially long in this case, just to discourage the sale.
Meanwhile, with more than a billion people and rapidly industrializing, China knows it will be desperate for oil, and it's obviously doing what it can to prepare for the future.
As I suspect is the U.S. (Iraq invasion makes sense when viewed as a way to gain more influence over Mideast and its oil).
When China takes the money we spend on their trinkets to industrialize their nation and so develop a huge appetite for oil and increase demand for oil--
I wonder how much we'll save in the long run when stereos made in China cost $10 but a barrel of oil is up to $500.
Also check this out: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-canoil17jul17,1,5245153.story
You know, it just occurred to me that Japan rapidly industrialized, and started a war with us because we got in the way of Japan's oil supply.