A US Department of Energy report warned Chinese efforts to reach out to oil-rich despotic regimes posed potential problems to the US strategically, but that such acquisitions were economically neutral, the Financial Times reported. Even if China's equity oil investments remove assets from the global market, in the sense that they are not subsequently available for resale, these actions merely displace what the Chinese would have otherwise bought on the open market, the report said. But Beijing's tie-ups with energy-rich problem states such as Sudan, Uzbekistan, and Burma posed a series of potential problems for the United States. As a long-term trend, China's behaviour in this respect runs counter to key strategic goals.
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