China Hits Out Over Panama Canal Port Sale
The Panama Canal continues to be the subject of tension between the US and China, which has escalated again following a Hong Kong group confirming its plan to sell off ports at both ends of the waterway.
CK Hutchison intends to sell around 80% of its port holdings to MSC’s port division and a hedge fund giant, which includes its Panama terminal operations at Balboa and Cristóbal, a decision which has angered the Chinese government.
While the Hong Kong group argues that the transaction is ordinary business practice, China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) has described the deal as a “betrayal of all Chinese people”.
Last month, we covered the news that China was becoming increasingly frustrated with what it described as ‘pressure and coercion’ being placed on Panama by the US. This resulted in the Central American country revoking their membership of China’s International Belt and Road Initiative.
China seemingly believes that the pressure from Trump’s government has influenced this sale. HKMAO published a commentary which reads “As soon as Trump took office in January, he accused China of controlling the Panama Canal, loudly declaring the US would ‘take it back’ and use military forces, if necessary.”
“Immediately afterward, US secretary of state Marco Rubio went straight to Panama to exert pressure on his first foreign trip. Later, on the eve of Trump’s first congressional speech, the news [of the sale] was released. All this is just a coincidence?”
Relations between the US and China have deteriorated considerably since Trump’s return to office, with the countries now in the middle of a tariff induced trade war.
You can read last month’s article, referred to above, here.
