Dodgers fans have been saying for a long time now that ANYONE would be preferable to the McCourt family, the scandal-plagued current owners of the baseball team. But recent news of a $1.2 billion offer to buy the team from the McCourts stirred up a hornets nest when it was revealed that Chinese government money is a substantial part of the deal.
The US government has intervened once before in a Chinese sovereign fund investment in the US. That was in 2005 when CNOOC, the Chinese National Oil Company, attempted to buy Unocal for $18.5 million. The argument then was that the sale threatened US energy security.
Obviously there’s no similar argument to make about China buying a MLB team but if this offer begins to move forward into a real deal I’m sure parties with other interests will be quick to drum up jingoistic anti-Chinese sentiments in order to try stopping it.
The Original Spin 