Trump and China compete on the Panama Canal to the test of Hong Kongs status

The agreement had the imprint of a Hong Kong billionaire nicknamed Superman for his Empire building. One of the magnate societies, which for years has led two ports to the Panama Canal, had been put in a broader confrontation between China and the United States.

The billionaire, Li Ka-Shing, therefore left the shooting line by marking an agreement of $ 19 billion to sell the company to a group of American investors with a deep pocket.

At least it seemed.

The leaders of Chinas now threaten to arrest Mr. Li and the company he controls, CK Hutchison, of seeing the agreement through, accusing the conglomerate of betraying Beijing.

The confrontation tested how far Xi Jinping, leader of Chinas, is willing to carry out its control over business in Hong Kong.

A former British colony, Hong Kong was sent back to China in 1997 with Beijing promising that she would mainly let the city govern herself, allowing her to remain a bridge towards China but to keep a system of capitalism in a free wheel. Mr. Li, as a Chinese entrepreneur who typed investors in the West to build an empire which included property, expedition and telecommunications, embodied this distinction.

The potential intervention of Beijing in the port agreement between CK Hutchison and a group led by Blackrock now endangers separation, eminent financiers and business leaders in Hong Kong. He could also destroy Mr. Xis Golden Goose at a critical time for the Chinese economy.

After having recorded losses in the past four of the past five years, the Hong Kongs stock market has a sign of enthusiasm for the Chinese economy. Chinese companies choose Hong Kong above London or New York to list their actions. It offers Mr. Xi a boosting point: since the president wins over the inauguration on January 20, the S&P 500 has dropped by around 5% while the Hong Kongs stock market increased by more than 20%.

Lawyers and regulatory experts generally believe that the Hong Kong or Beijing authorities will be reluctant to stop the agreement and it is not clear that they can do a lot. But the simple possibility has put Hong Kong on the edge. Beijing and his media proxies have maintained an almost daily drum of criticism.

Comments last week at your Kung Pao, a newspaper belonging to the Chinese government, qualified the agreement between CK Hutchison and the search for BlackRock profits and a question of national security. The Beijing government agency which oversees Hong Kong's policy republished its website comments. On Tuesday, the senior leader of Hong Kongs, John Lee, hastened to say that the agreement required serious attention.

Hu Xijin, former editor -in -chief of the Communist Party Tabloid Global Times, said that CK Hutchison should first be calm and coordinate with the national interests of Chinas.

Any attempt by Hong Kong or Beijing to stop the agreement would be extraordinary. Chinese companies must often ask the permission of regulators to get their money out of continental China. CK Hutchison exploits ports worldwide, including in China, but none of the 43 ports that is part of the BlackRock agreement is in China. CK hutchisons actions are not listed in continental China.

CK Hutchison refused to comment. Blackrock did not respond to a request for comments.

Victor Li, president of CK Hutchison (and son of Li Ka-Shing), said on Thursday in a statement accompanying a profits statement that the environment of CK hutchisons companies could be both volatile and unpredictable this year.

Contempt and warnings piled up on CK Hutchison recall criticism of cultural revolution that will frighten foreign investors, said Lew Mong-Hung, a former Chinese political advisor.

Who would dare to come to Hong Kong? said Lew, a former finance professional. If you do not obey, do not want to make a political sacrifice and do not want to be a political tool, you will be criticized and persecuted. Who will invest?

Chan King Cheung, professor of media ethics at Hong Kong Baptist University and former editor -in -chief of Hong Kong Economic Journal, wrote in a Journal of Hong Kong this week that the growing Beijing intervention in the business world of cities was more difficult to detach Chinese Chinese policy companies.

The attention that Beijing paid in the agreement on the Panama canal was only an other example that the great entrepreneurs must be patriots, wrote Mr. Chan. The days when Hong Kong companies considered the problems based solely on economic or commercial interests, he added.

The concern among business leaders cuts to the heart of the question that Hong Kong faces: are his societies free to make their own commercial decisions, or should they consider the wider national interests of Chinas, like Chinese companies on the continent?

For many, the answer will determine if Hong Kong can always work separately from the rest of China. The autonomy of Hong Kongs in freedom of expression and civil society has already been eroded after the closing of the local media; The arrest of Jimmy Lai, publisher of Hong Kong newspapers; And the arrests and the tests of dozens of walking leaders.

This is one thing to follow Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily, but another thing to go after Superman KS Li and his businesses, the most successful international company that HK has ever produced, said Mark L. Clifford, former member of the board of directors of Mr. Lais Next Digital and Chairman of the Committee for Liberty in Hong Kong.

For Beijing and its supporters, the Trump administration has already politicized commercial transactions, thwarted investments and imposing prices in the name of national security. In an opinion article, Mr. Hu, the former Chinese editor, argued that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. also did this when his administration stopped an agreement between Japan Japanese Steel and US Steel.

Beijing has reason to worry, he added. The Trump administration wishes to use ports to invoice additional costs to Chinese ships arriving at the port and hit the shipping and shipping industries.

Others have argued that CK Hutchison's condemnation of Chinas of CK Hutchison so as not to act in the national interests of Chinas actually ratified Mr. Trumps, said that the company was controlled by China.

Chinas' reaction to the agreement implicitly concedes Trump’s point of administration that control of the main ports, here just the Panama canal, constitutes a security threat to the United States, said Lester Ross, partner in the Beijing Bureau of the Wilmer Hale law firm.

This can also bring the business community closer to Hong Kong as a whole under the thumb of Beijing.