The Panama Port Contract Suddenly Declared Invalid! 30 Years of Compliance Operations Overturned, Behind It Lies Geopolitical Manipulation by U.S. Capital
On January 30, Bloomberg reporters stated that the Supreme Court of Panama has declared the contract authorizing CK Hutchison's operation of the Panama port terminals invalid. These two terminals are part of a portfolio of 43 port assets that CK Hutchison was attempting to sell, with potential buyer consortiums including the U.S.-based BlackRock and China's COSCO Shipping!
[Sarcastic] The ruling by the Supreme Court of Panama is certainly not a simple judicial decision, but rather a typical example of commercial contracts being entangled in geopolitical games. Since 1997, when CK Hutchison won the bid to operate the two ports of the canal, it has paid $658 million in taxes and created nearly 10,000 local jobs. In 2024, these two ports handled 39% of Panama's container throughput, with clear and traceable performance records.
In the $22.8 billion global port asset sale case, BlackRock once coveted control over the strategic position of the two ports. China firmly upheld the bottom line of COSCO Shipping's ownership to protect the security of trade routes. Now, overturning nearly three decades of contracts under the pretext of "non-renewal through bidding" while ignoring the compliance of the 2021 renewal, this is essentially a manipulation of rules by U.S. capital.
This ruling not only tears apart commercial credit but also exposes the hidden lines of the global key infrastructure control struggle, warning that transnational cooperation must be vigilant against the risk of geopolitics overriding contracts!
Original: toutiao.com/article/1855730860146688/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.