The Panama port incident has taken the Chinese strategic community by storm. On 4 March 2025, Cheung Kong Hutchison, owned by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing and family, currently operating important ports at both ends of the Panama Canal, announced a huge deal to sell all of Hutchison Port assets outside mainland China and Hong Kong—spanning 45 ports in 20 countries— to the BlackRock-TiL consortium for US$ 22.8 billion. The starting point of this deal can be traced back to January when the United States (US) President Donald Trump raked up the issue of Chinese control of the Panama Canal during his inauguration speech. In the following months, under pressure from the US top brass, the Panamanian authorities launched a financial audit of Hutchison Ports’ Panama subsidiary in late January. Following the US Secretary of State Mark Rubio’s visit in early February, pressure from Panamanian officials escalated. As a result, Cheung Kong Holdings found itself at risk of losing all its Panama port assets, leading to the deal’s conclusion.
The Chinese Debate on ‘Patriotic’ Enterprises (Antara Ghosal Singh, Observer Research Foundation)
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