China's ambassador to Canada warned in remarks published on Saturday against allowing domestic politics to drive the Canadian government's decision on whether to approve Chinese state-owned oil company CNOOC Ltd's proposed $15.1 billion takeover of Canadian oil producer Nexen Inc.
"Business is business. It should not be politicised," Ambassador Zhang Junsai said in an interview with Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. "If we politicise all this, then we can't do business." The CNOOC deal, if completed, would mark the first outright takeover of a large Canadian energy producer by a Chinese state-owned enterprise. Concern that China has unfairly limited Canadian companies from investing there is one of the issues affecting the debate on approving CNOOC's bid for the energy producer.