Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal.
The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil.
“Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the surface? Great entrepreneurs are never cold-blooded and speculating profit-seekers, but passionate and proud patriots!” said the opinion piece in the newspaper, a publication that tends to support Beijing’s policies.
Photo: AP
The Chinese government agency, the country’s top office on Hong Kong affairs, first indicated its displeasure over the transaction last week by sharing an earlier Ta Kung Pao commentary. That post drove CK Hutchison shares down 6.4 percent on Friday, their biggest decline since 2020.
The conglomerate founded by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), this month agreed to sell off the bulk of its global ports business to a consortium led by BlackRock Inc. The sale included a controlling share in ports near the Panama Canal, an apparent victory for US President Donald Trump after he had raised concerns about their ownership.
The first Ta Kung Pao commentary called on companies to be careful about which “side they should stand on.” It said social media users had accused CK Hutchison of “spineless groveling” and “selling out” Chinese people.
Under the agreement, CK Hutchison would sell 43 ports in 23 countries, while keeping facilities in China and Hong Kong. The transaction is set to generate cash proceeds of more than US$19 billion.
Because the deal involves only overseas assets it is unlikely to need Beijing’s sign-off, but the recent attacks have stoked concern that China might somehow try to intervene.
The fresh opinion piece lauded the “heroic actions” of Ren Zhengfei (任正非), founder of Huawei Technologies Co, a Chinese phone and device manufacturer that has long been targeted on national security grounds by the US and other Western nations.
“Both history and reality remind entrepreneurs at the forefront of the storm that in the face of the US’ bullying, only by standing firmly with the country and fighting bravely can they defend their country, win dignity and maintain their reputation,” the commentary said.
Those who choose to do the opposite, it said, might “make a lot of money for a while, but in the end they will have no future and will bear history’s blame.”
Calls and an e-mail sent to CK Hutchison offices in Hong Kong went unanswered outside of office hours yesterday.
The apparent expression of disapproval by Chinese authorities underscores the balancing act facing executives whose companies get caught up in the widening China-US rivalry.
CK Hutchison and sister company CK Asset Holdings Ltd are registered in the Cayman Islands — a move carried out in 2015 as part of a group-wide restructuring. CK Hutchison accrues almost 90 percent of its revenue outside China and Hong Kong.
The potential purchase by BlackRock would be one of the biggest acquisitions of the year.
Before the agreement, Trump said that China had taken over the critical waterway, without providing evidence, and that the US was paying too much for the passage of ships.
He previously demanded the fees charged on US naval and merchant ships be lowered, or else Panama should return the canal to the US.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS