Chinese automakers are interested in buying international assets, but executives and analysts don't think the Chinese firms are able to act as the savior of the global auto industry in recession.

The European and U.S. strategies for dealing with the slumping automotive industry are about 180 degrees apart. "In the U.S., you get money to close down factories, In Europe, you get money to keep them open and safeguard jobs," Klaus Franz, a union official at Opel in Germany told The New York Times Tuesday.