http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050822/ca_pr_on_bu/petrokazakhstan_sale_4
You are 100% correct.
It's unreal.
Some see this as a simple company-to-company transaction with income statement motivation behind it when nothing could be further from the truth.
What this article does not tell the reader is the Petrochina's parent, China National Petroleum, is majority owned by the PRC.
Just like the CNOOC attempt at Unocal, China is on the hunt for oil and energy and Beijing is using these partially privatized companies as the gophers for these acquisitions.
The more they get, the more they will use.