China's financial clout locks in energy supplies

While China's exports plunge and millions of laid-off workers hunt for jobs, the country's big state companies are spending billions of dollars securing access to oil and other scarce resources the country will need in coming decades.

The $25 billion energy agreement signed late Tuesday by China and Russia was the biggest of several deals signed this month, with state financial backing, that are expanding Beijing's overseas resources base at a time when most banks elsewhere are not lending and most governments are barely scraping by.

...

Nearly daily reports of new overtures by China Inc.'s cash-rich corporations suggest the global downturn is easing the way for acquisitions that might in better times have been more controversial.

...

With roughly $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and many state companies also flush with funds, China has so far appeared immune to the financing famine afflicting other major economies.