Working through its State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China has succeeded in “pausing” plans by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchinson Co. to sell two Panamanian ports to a consortium led by the predatory U.S. investment firm BlackRock. The Panamanian ports of Balboa and Cristobal are part of a larger deal by which the BlackRock group will buy 43 ports in 23 companies for a whopping $23 billion of which CK Hutchison’s share would be $19 billion. But Beijing and Hong Kong have become increasingly vocal about their opposition to the sale of the two Panamanian ports, located at either end of the Panama Canal, which President Donald Trump says is proof that China “runs” the Canal and that the U.S. should “take it back.”
At the end of last week, Reuters reported, the SAMR said it would begin an anti-trust investigation into the Panama part of the port deal. SAMR’s review was based on concerns that BlackRock’s purchase of the ports could create a monopoly over regional trade and exercise control over critical maritime infrastructure. The Hong Kong-based Dimsum Daily asserted today that SAMR’s anti-trust review “is not merely a regulatory formality but a calculated assertion of China’s strategic interests in an era of escalating U.S.-China rivalry.” The definitive documentation for the two port operations was to be signed today, but that has now been postponed.
