CNOOC gives up on Unocal

The Financial Times: CNOOC likely to withdraw bid for Unocal

A relevant piece of commentary on Forbes: Red China's Wrong Moves by Carlton Delfeld

Excerpt:

While serving on the executive board of the Asian Development Bank under the first President George Bush, I consistently called for China to “bite the bullet” and privatize its state-owned companies as soon as possible. Representatives from European and other Asian countries would just shake their heads and mutter about impatient Americans while counseling that China adopt a slow, incremental approach to privatization.

Here we are more than twelve years later, and this bullet has turned into a time bomb that could derail China’s impressive economic growth and a better life for its people