The Chinese government has strongly criticised Hong Kong conglomerates for selling planned transactions to ports in Panama and elsewhere to investment groups led by American asset managers, warning that the deal will take away China from the necessary impact on key shipping routes.
This criticism shows a sudden change in China's policy towards Panama and control of ports around the world. When President Trump raised concerns shortly after taking office, his comments that China has too much power on the Panama Canal were initially ridiculed by Beijing.
However, Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper owned by the Chinese government and the Communist Party, has denounced the planned port deal. A commentary from the newspaper, released Thursday, attacked plans by Hong Kong company CK Hutchison to sell ports at both ends of the Panama Canal and sell more than 40 ports around the world for $19 billion to an investment group led by American giant BlackRock.
Ta Kung Pao is considered a Beijing mouthpiece in Hong Kong and has been praised by China's top leader Xi Jinping. However, in case someone missed the point, the Beijing government agency overseeing Hong Kong's policy quickly reposted the commentary on its own website.
Commentary warned that China must exist on the Panama Canal as the Trump administration threatens to raise tariffs on goods arriving at Chinese construction vessels in American ports. The canal was said to be “the core route of China's trade between Latin America and the Caribbean.”
If the transaction is completed, the commentary claims: China's shipping and trade will inevitably be subject to the US. ”
Ta Kung Pao said Chinese internet users viewed the transaction as “profit-seeking, unjust” and added that “all Chinese people will be sold out.”
The commentary concluded that companies involved in planned transactions should “think carefully about the position and aspects they should stand.”
CK Hutchison's shares fell sharply in Hong Kong trading on Friday. Hutchison did not respond to calls or emails seeking comment.
Beijing had previously rejected Trump's warning about China's impact on the Panama Canal. President Trump welcomed the BlackRock deal.
CK Hutchison is managed by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, who Bloomberg News estimates to have a $31 billion fortune. Li is known as “Superman” by Hong Kong media, and has been steadily deteriorating in relations with Beijing since Xi took office in 2012 due to decades of cleverly timing market movements.
Li sold much of his real estate investments in mainland China in the year leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic and reinvested much of his money in Europe. His actions were widely criticized by Chinese nationalists, but they proved economically wise. He managed to get out of these investments before the Chinese housing market collided in 2021.
During the 2019 Hong Kong democracy protest, Lee expressed feelings that were interpreted as sympathetic to the protesters and their demands. Beijing's allies in Hong Kong were also critical of him.
The conflict between Lee and Xi is coming back. He was the top official in the 1990s in Fuzhou, a city in southeastern China, long before it was revealed that Xi could one day become China's top leader. XI stopped the Li project and built a skyscraper in the historic Fuzhou neighborhood.
It was not immediately clear whether China exceeded its criticism of the CK Hutchison deal, but the Chinese government has interfered with other commercial transactions of the past.
Two real estate entrepreneurs who sometimes express skepticism about government policies, Pan Si and Jang Singh agreed to sell control of the empire's Soho China in 2021 to another US investment giant, Blackstone. However, the Chinese government refused to approve the transaction, which fell apart.
