I'm betting it's epoxy of some sort, designed to keep the screws from
vibrating loose. Don't know how you'd identify it for sure.

It is "thermal grease" aka "heat-sink compound".
Remarkably poor epoxy if he could just pry it apart.

If John McCain gets the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination,
my vote for President will be a write-in for Jiang Zemin.

Your political "thinking" needs work as well.
Thought about just moving to the PRC? I'm sure you'd love it.
Curious why all those people spend 10s of thousands of US$
to get away from there, though. Makes you wonder.