Inevitably, CNOOC's bid for Unocal has caused the cerebral-spinal fluid of the usual congressional suspects to come to a rolling boil. What fun.

One of the fringe benefits of working in the world's lowest profession, spin-doctoring, is that your default setting is to automatically parse all media for hidden agendas and lines of influence. Although it might be a danger to my profession, its a skill I wish was better taught as part of American public education. It might force our mainstream media to be less lazy in their reporting if we were a bit more discerning.

For example, here, via Dow Jones Newswires, is that paragon of thoughtfulness, Rep. Joe Barton (R Tex) on the deal (reprinted in full):

Rep Barton: China Govt Must Divest CNOOC Interest

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said his biggest problem with Cnooc Ltd.'s $18.5 billion bid for Unocal Corp. is that Cnooc's chief stockholder is the Communist government of China.

In a CNBC interview Tuesday, Barton said he wanted the Chinese government to divest its interest in Cnooc and to hold open elections within six months before he would approve of the company's bid for Unocal. 
 
As reported, Barton wrote a letter to President George W. Bush, saying Cnooc's bid represented a "clear threat" to U.S. national security and should be blocked.

Barton said in the CNBC interview that his role as head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee was not to intervene in a private market transaction but to protect America's interests and consumers.

Let's see - Oil-state representative? Ludicrously impossible conditions? The hidden-agenda-meter is ticking! And sure enough, here is OpenSecrets.org to tell us that, surprise, rival bidder Chevron is one of Barton's major campaign contributors! And has been for some time. And, in fact, several other domestic energy firms, all of which are potential rivals to CNOOC, are also on the Barton bandwagon.

So am sure that Rep. Barton is a completely disinterested party and his concern for national security is sincere and rooted in the deepest concern for the well-being of average American consumers who would otherwise be defenseless hostages of the rapacious, Chinese energy barons. (Alright, in fairness, Barton did list the vague but applicable “American interests” amongst his priorities.)

AFX in Hong Kong, on the other hand, has gone out of its way to publish an article revealing the financing of many of the congressmen and women arguing against CNOOC's bid:

Washington lawmakers who have expressed opposition to CNOOC's 18.5 bln usd bid for Unocal Corp have received more than 100,000 usd in campaign contributions from rival bidder Chevron since 2002, the Financial Times reported, citing publicly available filings in the US.

That has raised questions over whether Chevron is drumming up a campaign of opposition to the deal, it said in its online edition.

It cited an unidentified person close to CNOOC as saying that Chevron is using its political clout in Washington to try to increase uncertainty over the higher CNOOC bid for Unocal.

From: “US lawmakers opposing China's CNOOC bid for Unocal under scrutiny”, AFX, June 29, 2005

A more balanced point of view? Well, perhaps not. The agenda-meter ticks here as well. In 2003 AFX Asia was sold by Agence France Presse to, wait for it, Xinhua Financial Networks (XFN), a spinoff from the Chinese state news agency of the same name. Now, XFN is majority controlled by international shareholders and only partially owned by Xinhua (although Xinhua has the largest single stake). They probably have editorial independence, and they are based in Hong Kong (and I have met AFX journalists who are clearly not tools of the Chinese state). But it does make the eyebrows twitch. After all, corporate influence over American politicians isn't exactly a breaking story. I wonder who initiated that story idea.

The reality is that this is a good, old-fashioned PR and lobbying slugfest. Chevron and CNOOC are both waging media wars behind the scenes, trying to steer public opinion their way. None of it has to do with American security or the quality of governance or democracy in China or any of that noble pablum. It has to do with dollars and cents. End of story.

I find the media war interesting, especially because it revolves around the demonization of China. But I'm not a Unocal shareholder and I don't buy the intellectually bankrupt “national security” argument. Therefore, I don't give a rats ass whether Unocal is sold to Chevron, China, or the Grand Duchy of Lichtenstein.

And, frankly, neither should you.

Update: Now that you've read my tirade, read AFX's reply to me. Oops.