The idea of working within China's opaque political system is scary at the best of times. The ability to get real security over onshore assets has held back development there consistently, and the only deals you can ever be sure will work are those with obvious political backing – such as the ICBC IPO.
So investors were understandably nervous when the Chinese regulators introduced a new national economic security test in September, intended to protect "key industries," "national security" and "famous trademarks" from foreign acquisition (with all of those terms helpfully undefined). The move was triggered by Cnooc's attempted takeover of Unocal,...