BEIJING, China — ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s expected nomination as the next US secretary of state is perplexing some informed business people in Beijing.
The
questions take two different tracks. The first relates to Tillerson’s
experience. “Is he qualified?” asked an executive in the banking
industry. “It looks like Trump is filing up his Cabinet with people with
no government experience.”
When
I noted that this was not lost on Trump and was in fact part of his
strategy, the banking executive responded: “Well, who knows if that will
work.” (Because these individuals had not been authorized to speak by
their companies, they requested their names not be used.)
“He
has experience running and representing Exxon all over the globe, sure,
but that’s not the same as representing America,” the banker said.
The second line of questioning pertains to Tillerson and hi
“Oh
yes, he has experience with Putin,” a Chinese oil company executive
told me. Meaning what? “He’s been working with the Russians since the
1990s on their big oil and gas [Sakhalin] field. Everyone knows he is
close to Putin.”
This
executive wondered if this was a message not only to Russia, but also
to the Chinese. “For sure it means Russia and America will be close.
Does this mean China is out? They [the new administration in Washington]
may find out these relationships [between China, Russia and U.S.] are
more complicated than they think.”
“It
is like strongman to strongman with [Tillerson] and Putin,” says
another Chinese executive who works for a giant multinational oil
company. “He [Tillerson] was focused on execution and cost management as
CEO. This is different from his new job. So now we have strongman
management of international affairs.”
These oil execs also point out that ExxonMobil does business in China.
According
to the company website: “ExxonMobil’s history in China dates back to
the 1890s, when Standard Oil, the predecessor of ExxonMobil, began
marketing kerosene in China.”
Today
the company has significant operations in China including exploration,
gas and fuels marketing, lubricants sales and services, chemicals and
power generation, including a $4.5 billion refining and petrochemical
complex in Fujian Province. The Wall Street Journal reported the company
was planning on opening 750 gas stations in China, even as it was selling company-owned stations in the US.
The company has some 1300 employees in China, 300 of which are in Hong Kong, the rest on the Mainland.
If
Tillerson is named and confirmed as secretary of state, the Chinese
will be paying attention, particularly when it comes to his relationship
with Russia. His then-former company’s operations in China will be on
their radar, too.
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