Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing bought a controlling interest in Husky oil years ago. Since then there have been other Chinese interests in the oilsands. The Chinese tried to buy Noranda Mining but was blocked by the Canadian government in 2004. CNOOC of China bought MEG Energy in 2005 for its oilsands holdings. Some multinational oil companies owned oil and gas blocks in China.

Technically, that is, in a jurisdictional sense, Li Ka-shing is not a 'Chinese' billionaire but a Hong Kong SAR billionaire. The legal systems are entirely different. Hong Kong law is pretty much identical to English law, for obvious reasons.

It always galls me when people refer to Li Ka-shing as a 'Chinese' billionaire, unless they mean that designation in a simple ethnic sense. In political and economic terms, Li Ka-shing is a product of Hong Kong, not China.

It is not really right to raise Li Ka-shing and then talk about 'the Chinese'. It's like saying a Singaporean billionaire has bought something up, and then concluding that Beijing is on the march.

Hong Kong is no longer a British colony. It is under Chinese rule, although it retains some financial freedoms.

One factory in China paid a monthly wage of "900-2,500 yuan (US$118-$326)," 6/2007. That is more than the minimum wage. Company owners were able to pool capital and buy businesses abroad, including oilfields.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IF06Cb01.html

Husky Oil has Canadian oil sands leases and offshore conventional oil projects.