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.”
