By Independent News Roundup
Cynthia Rush March 20, 2025 EST
March 20, 2025 (EIRNS)—The Chinese government has signalled, in the strongest terms, its serious reservations about the $22 billion deal, announced in early March, by which a consortium led by Larry Fink’s BlackRock investment firm will buy the Panamanian ports of Cristobal and Balboa, plus 43 other ports located in 23 countries currently owned by the Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, Ltd. CK Hutchison is owned by Hong Kong’s wealthiest and very unsavory business magnate, Li Ka-shing. Through various means, including media controlled by the Chinese Communist Party; statements by Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee; deployment of a Chinese diplomatic delegation to Panama last week; and remarks by the Foreign Ministry, President Xi Jinping’s government is making clear its displeasure with the BlackRock deal. Note that there are 145 days for negotiations to take place before the deal is finalized.
Two government websites, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, and the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), posted scathing articles attacking the deal, published by the Communist Party-controlled, Hong Kong-based Ta Kung-Pao daily on March 13 and 15. In its March 13 article, Ta Kung-Pao attacked the deal’s impact on Chinese shipping, trade, shipbuilding and even construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It warns that “it can be seen that this deal is a hegemonic act of the United States using state power to encroach on the legitimate rights and interests of other countries through coercion, pressure, inducement and other despicable means. It is power politics packaged as `business behavior.’ The wolfish ambitions of American politicians are obvious.”
The article stresses the absolute importance of the Panama Canal for Chinese trade, especially to Latin America and the Caribbean, and that China’s presence in Panama is of the utmost importance. CK Hutchison is described as “spineless groveling, profit-seeking, profit-forgetting, disregarding national interests and national justice, and betraying and selling out all Chinese people…. Faced with such a major event and a matter of great justice, the relevant companies should think twice, think carefully about the nature and crux of the issue, and think carefully about what position and side they should stand on.”
The concern felt by the government is such, that last week, a senior-level delegation led by Ma Hui, vice-minister of the CCP’s International Department, visited Panama, according to South China Morning Post on March 17. Although the stated purpose of the trip was to “strengthen exchanges with Panama’s political parties and think tanks, and enhance mutual understanding,” Nanyang Technological University professor Dylan Loh suggested that it was more likely aimed at finding out more about Panama’s recent “acquiescence to U.S. pressure and try to tease out the strategic intent of Washington.”
On March 18, just before entering a meeting of Hong Kong’s Executive Council, chief executive John Lee told Global Times that the HKSAR “opposes the use of coercion or pressure tactics in international economic and trade relations,” and warned that foreign governments are expected to provide a fair and just environment for businesses, including Hong Kong ones. The same day, at the Foreign Ministry’s press briefing spokeswoman Mao Ning told a questioner she had no specific information about reports that Chinese authorities are “investigating” CK Hutchison’s sale of its overseas ports, including those in Panama, but added that “more broadly, China firmly opposes moves that infringe on and undermine other countries’ legitimate rights and interests through economic coercion, hegemonism and bullying.”
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