Sensitivity to foreign ownership of business can be a universal phenomenon. As China’s economy has developed, western firms have found it hard to break into markets there. This has been especially so in the technology sector. Our recent run of blog entries has looked at online marketer, Alibaba and its internal battle with major shareholders, Yahoo and Softbank. Equally, we have reported on moves by Nestle into China’s huge consumer markets and compared them with Coca Cola’s struggles.

But not only western companies’ expansion plans can be affected by political interference. Regulatory pressure is increasingly cited as a barrier to entry to China’s markets. But the story of Dubai Ports World’s thwarted entry into US port ownership is worth remembering too. It seems that foreign involvement and takeovers in many fields and many countries can arouse strong protectionist tendencies.