Danger lurks in drive to go global.

(From The Standard)

Byline: John Berthelsen

With its corporate coffers brimming and its offices teeming with confidence, China's companies are increasingly on a state-sanctioned hunt for overseas properties that is expected to roughly double outbound investment to US$14 billion (HK$109.2 billion) in 2005.

Chinese foreign direct investment now exceeds US$35 billion, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, very much driven by a government determined to, in its words, go global. That drive was exemplified by Wednesday's news that Lenovo, the partly state-owned company, will purchase US computer giant IBM's personal computer division for US$1.75 billion, becoming the world's third-largest PC maker.

But before exuberance becomes irrational in both privately and state-owned corporate offices in China, analysts said, it might pay to take a sober look at where this is going to take the country. ``You don't get your chequebook out for …