For a man about to make the biggest decision of his career-one that could trigger a huge political backlash in America—Fu Chengyu seemed remarkably relaxed earlier this week. Sitting in a stately meeting room in his Beijing offices, the blunt, English-speaking 54-year-old chairman and chief executive of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) joked that the outcome could "make me a hero or a martyr". On June 23rd Mr Fu took the plunge, making an offer of $18.5 billion (excluding debt) for Unocal, a California-based oil and gas company. This is the largest foreign takeover yet attempted by a Chinese firm—and a contested one, to boot. On April 4th, Unocal agreed to be acquired by Chevron, the second-biggest American oil firm, in a deal worth $17 billion (excluding debt). With Sino-American relations already strained, the prospect of a state-owned Chinese company buying a big American energy firm is causing ructions in Washington, DC, ostensibly over potential national-security risks, and may also do so elsewhere in Asia, where most of Un-ocal's gas reserves are located.
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