I didn't see the film, nor have I ever read the book, but am quite certain that the title (at the very least) nevertheless does well to encompass China's latest buying spree:
Squeezed between falling profits and the credit crunch, a growing number of troubled corporations and countries are turning to cash-rich China for a bailout. And with foreign assets cheaper than they have been for years, Beijing is going on an international spending spree.
It appears that while the Chinese economy has also been hit by the crisis, the Chinese banks have not been so badly damaged, and policy banks seem ready to lend. And lend they are.
Last week, the Chinese government signed a landmark $10bn agreement with Brazil that will ensure long-term supplies of oil to China while delivering much-needed financial assistance to help Brazil develop oil and gas reserves recently discovered in coastal waters. Also last week, China signed off on $25bn in loans for Russia in return for oil supplies from newly discovered fields in Siberia for the next twenty years. Venezuela will likewise supply Beijing with up to 1 million barrels per day by 2015 in return for $6bn from China to top up an existing development fund. Indeed, not only is China taking full advantage of the economic downturn, but it is quickly assuming the role of Global Lender Extraordinaire.
I must say, however, China's " loans-for-oil" policy reminds me in part of the now infamous Oil for Food Programme. While I trust that Chinese loan money is being employed for its intended purposes, I would be shocked - shocked! - if at least a small portion of it wasn't unlawfully being diverted to help prop up recipient regimes. And when the recipient regimes are states like Russia and Venezuela, it would be a miracle indeed if that weren't the case.