A WELCOME BUYER: The U.S. Government welcomes the deal to sell the Hummer brand as it seeks to restructure its auto industry (HUANG JIANPEI)

The collapse of U.S. auto giants seems to be opening the door for Chinese automakers to step onto the global stage. But for Chinese players who lack money, expertise or an appetite for risk, the path of going global may be mined with hidden pitfalls.

One day after filing for bankruptcy protection, the struggling U.S. automaker General Motors Corp. (GM) on June 2 announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd. to sell its Hummer brand of gas-guzzling and road-hogging sport utility vehicles (SUV). Shedding loss-making units is part of GM's overall restructuring efforts to endure its near-crash amid the ravages of the U.S. economic washout. Tengzhong is a private manufacturer of construction machinery and energy equipment based in Chengdu, the capital of southwest Sichuan Province.

CONTROVERSIAL BUYOUT: The planned sale of the Hummer brand to Tengzhong has provoked controversy in China (GU XINRONG)

The deal marks the first time that a Chinese buyer has acquired a brand from one of the buckling U.S. automakers, but has yet to be approved by regulators in either country.