the australian, page-5

The ball is now firmly back in China's court.

A JV scenario is definitley NOT a China scenario. The Chinese want Lock, stock, and barrel.

If SDL terminates teh deal with HanLong and work on a Plan B (regardless of whether it is superior or inferior to the HL deal), then China will have to make a seperate bid to counter this JV proposition.

This would be actually quite high-risk for the Chinese.

If (I don't expect), the FIRB doesn't give China a big tick. The Chinese may have outflanked themselves.