Masthead graphic based on a painting by Gudrun Thriemer.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Joe McDonald, "Doubt cast on Chinese bid for Hummer," Globe and Mail, June 26, 2009.

[We North Americans love the ostentation of driving our kids to the ski hill in an armoured military vehicle with tiny windows. It makes us feel that we will be ready for the revolution when the time comes. It also helps to create the illusion that we know how to drive in the snow.

The G&M caption writer tries to remind us that the Chinese are just a bunch of crazy tyrants by saying that "China's regulator reportedly believes gas guzzlers violate conservation goals." This "reported belief" is only possible because the Chinese government apparently has conservation goals and may actually intend to meet them. In Canada we used to have Kyoto goals and some limits on investment in and by foreign interests, but no more. One benefit of GM bankruptcy is that some of the company's worst ideas will drop dead on the spot. It's not enough, but it's a start. -jlt]

China's planning agency is likely to reject a Chinese company's bid to acquire General Motors Corp.'s Hummer unit, in part because its gas-guzzling vehicles conflict with Beijing's conservation goals, state radio reported.

The National Development and Reform Commission is also likely to say Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp., a maker of construction machinery, lacks expertise to run Hummer, China National Radio said late Thursday. It cited no source.

  “Some people may have views and speculation but the Chinese government has a process that we respect...”
Statement by unspecified company

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