From Bloomberg Businessweek, October 19:
Beijing exerts variable degrees of influence over some 90 deepwater ports overseas.
Sitting on either end of the Panama Canal are two massive ports operated by the same Chinese company. Any disruption at the waterway—the conduit for roughly 40% of US container traffic—could cost American businesses hundreds of millions of dollars a day, which explains why President Donald Trump has set his sights on ensuring that the critical maritime choke point is beyond the reach of Beijing’s influence. “China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” Trump said during his inaugural address in January.
Trump’s demand that Panama’s government revoke the rights of CK Hutchison Holding Ltd. to operate the two gateways highlights what for Washington and other world capitals is an uncomfortable reality: China has spent two decades patiently assembling a massive port network spanning every continent except Antarctica.
Chinese companies own or operate terminals at more than 90 deepwater ports overseas, according to data compiled by Isaac Kardon, a senior fellow for China studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. That includes 34 of the top 100 busiest ports, as ranked by Lloyd’s List. Holdings include the fifth-largest container port in Europe, the first deep-sea port on South America’s Pacific coast capable of handling ultralarge container vessels and interests in more than one-third of all commercial ports in Africa.
“We often say that to get rich, we must first build roads,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing workers at Tieshan port on the South China Sea during a 2017 visit. “But in coastal areas, to get rich, we must first build ports.”
***
China, whose share of global merchandise exports totaled about 15% in 2024, by far the largest of any country, has a clear commercial interest in maintaining a presence along important maritime trade routes. A 2018 study by PwC estimated that every $1 China spends on African ports yields $13 in trade—to say nothing of the geopolitical return on investment.
And for a country with just one overseas military base, collecting ports is a dual-use strategy. In Chinese policymaking circles, the term “maritime strategic strongpoint” has been used interchangeably to describe both types of installations.
“There’s a major Chinese presence in every region, clustered around key maritime choke points,” says Kardon, who’s also the author of China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order. “There’s an obvious commercial advantage to this network, but it also raises acute security concerns.”
Ports are part of a broader contest for maritime dominance between China and the US. Both sides have slapped special port fees on each other’s vessels, while the US has rallied allies like South Korea to help revive its moribund shipbuilding industry. In October, China sanctioned the US units of South Korean shipping giant Hanwha Ocean Co. in the latest tit-for-tat move.
The degree of control the Chinese government exercises over these numerous properties varies. Ports operated by CK Hutchison, a conglomerate based in Hong Kong, were once seen as beyond the direct reach of the leadership on the mainland, but that’s changed with the push to limit the territory’s autonomy in recent years. In other cases, Beijing’s influence is less ambiguous: Piraeus in Greece and Chancay in Peru are owned by China Cosco Shipping Corp., which was blacklisted by the Pentagon in January for allegedly having links to the People’s Liberation Army.
Neither Cosco nor Hutchison responded to requests for comment.
“Ensuring that the world’s ports remain open and secure is critical for global commerce,” said US Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey in a statement to Bloomberg News. “China’s growing global network of ports threatens those objectives.” Kim, a Democrat, sits on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which held a hearing in late January on foreign influence over the Panama Canal.US officials claim that Chinese-run ports are helping Beijing to gather intelligence. Ports in Greece, Nigeria and Sri Lanka have welcomed Chinese warships, while China’s first overseas military base, in the tiny African nation of Djibouti, began life as a “logistics hub” next to a Chinese-owned port.
***Chinese analysts and officials say such claims are unfounded. “China is constructing ports for commercial purposes,” says Wang Dong, a professor at Peking University. “Speculation by some US political figures and think tanks about the threat of Chinese ports is groundless.” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that US accusations about its port network are aimed at “smearing and disrupting China’s economic and trade cooperation with other countries.”Still, other world leaders share Washington’s concerns. A recent European Commission defense white paper floated the idea of tightening controls on foreign ownership of critical transport infrastructure. India has bristled at Chinese influence over ports in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while Australia plans to reclaim the port of Darwin from its Chinese leaseholder.
....MUCH MORE
