Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government
Being nice is not in the American vocabulary. Suffering from an acute superiority complex, the US is trying, unsuccessfully, to conquer the world. In the middle east, it is war with weapons of mass destruction, in the east it is with words and political manoeuvring.
Take the latest 2024 Annual Report by the US Congressional-Executive Committee on China for example. The 36-page document is sprinkled with lies from start to finish. It champions the local dissidents who have absconded overseas to seek safe havens in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.
To indicate the validity of the report one of the key “witnesses” was China hawk Marco Rubio, Trump’s candidate for Secretary of State, called out major American corporations for their “cowardly” efforts to lobby against his bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would prevent U.S. firms from importing goods produced wholly or in part with slave labor. Rubio is by far the greatest hawk in the US and confirmation of his post as head of US foreign affairs does not bide well for us.
Not only is Rubio interfering in China and Hong Kong affairs, but also that of American businesses. Some 1400 members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, the largest Amcham outside the USA, are affected by Rubio’s rhetoric and Biden/Trump decisions. Due to the multitude of sanctions the US administration has passed on to Hong Kong companies and individuals, the US businesses are having a hard time to continue their trade and services in this Pearl of the Orient.
As an example of what the congressional session hears, Rubio told his peers that Hong Kong’s National Security Law severely limited judges’ freedom of action; the authorities were intent on quashing even peaceful dissent (police approved 382 processions and 15892 public meetings in 2023 – the second highest since 2014); the banning of the Glory to Hong Kong protest song; physical and sexual violence by prison guards against juvenile offenders; and the list of his imaginary breaches of the Basic Law goes on and on.
The 70,000Americans living in Hong Kong must shudder when hearing this false narrative from the highest authorities in the US. In fact, it was enough to force some 15,000 Americans to leave Hong Kong from the start of the riots in 2018. For them, enough is enough and the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the US administration and the menagerie of China-hating politicians seeking glory through soundbites decrying China and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong authorities must be terribly frustrated by repeatedly debunking these false claims designed to divide the HKSAR from the mainland. But they must continue to refute these deliberate lies to maintain the integrity of Hong Kong and China.
A Hong Kong Government spokesman described the report as “a smack of despicable political manipulation with ill intentions.”
On safeguarding national security, the report said “the arbitrary application of national security laws has led to the imprisonment of dissidents and activists, further eroding fundamental freedoms in the city. Ongoing criminal prosecution on charges involving national security and sedition against individuals who peacefully exercised their rights included news media executives Jimmy Lai and Chung Pui-kuen, human rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung, and student activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung. Hong Kong police issued warrants of arrest on at least 13 exiled activists and offered rewards for information leading to their arrest. These individuals advocated for democratic reform and for imposing financial sanctions on Hong Kong and People’s Republic of China (PRC) officials who perpetrated human rights violations.”
Those arrested in Hong Kong for illegal activities are no better than those arrested and charged in the January 9, 2021, storming of Capitol Hill in Washington DC. In 2019-20 Hong Kong experienced fully blown riots; they were not peaceful demonstrations. Freedoms are not absolute in Hong Kong or Washington or anywhere else and breaches of the peace are dealt with the full force of the law. This is universal.
The Hong Kong government spokesman retorted: “The HKSAR Government strongly opposes the absurd and untrue content regarding legislation safeguarding national security. In accordance with international law and international practice based on the Charter of the United Nations, safeguarding national security is an inherent right of all sovereign states. Many common law jurisdictions, including the US, UK, Australia and Canada have enacted multiple pieces of legislation and implemented measures to safeguard national security.”
The US does not understand the meaning of peace. It wages war throughout the world and if it cannot find a war, it will make one. President-elect Donald Trump comes across as an opponent of war and, he says, that with the help of China he will restore peace in the middle east. But if the present trend of hostility towards the east continues, he will have little chance of getting President Xi Jinping on side.
Mark Pinkstone
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government
The American dictatorship of President Donald Trump and his sidekick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is nothing short of a litany of lies told to Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino to break off Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) ties with China.
Before taking over the presidency of the US, Trump told the press, “China is running the Panama Canal that was not given to China, that was given to Panama foolishly, but they violated the agreement, and we’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen,”
With that mindset, Trump sent China hawk Rubio off to Panama with the threat of taking back the canal unless the Chinese were kicked out.
The only problem with the plan is that China has never had any interest, let alone control over the Panama Canal.
A sole Hong Kong conglomerate, Hutchison Port Holdings, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, has two ports at either end of the canal operated by its subsidiary Panama Ports Company. There are also three other ports along the canal operated by private companies, all of which are used for loading and unloading cargo and providing fuel for vessels vying the waterway. They have no control over which vessels can use the canal, nor do they collect tolls for its use. This is the responsibility of the Panama Canal Authority, whose administrator, deputy administrator, and 11-member board are selected by Panama’s government but operate independently.
Hutchison Port Holdings (PH) is the world’s largest port operator across Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates in five of the seven busiest container ports in the world, handling 13 per cent of the world's container traffic. Revenue in 2023 amounted to US$4.2 billion.
HPH has routinely topped the list of port terminal operators ever since it expanded worldwide in 1991. It currently operates nearly 300 berths across 48 important ports around the world including the Port of Barcelona, Port of Buenos Aires, Port of Busan, the Thames Port of London, and the Port of Botany (Sydney)
During his visit to Panama, Rubio wrote in a post on X that "the United States cannot, and will not, allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue with its effective and growing control over the Panama Canal area."
Trump has complained that China exerts control over the canal and charges the U.S. ships six-figure premiums to cross Panama's isthmus. The canal was built over several decades by the U.S. and completed in 1914 but handed over to Panama during the Carter administration.
Immediately after Rubio’s fleeting visit to the central American country, President Mulino said Panama would not renew participation in China’s BRI and two Panamanian lawyers filed a complaint in the country’s Supreme Court to cancel the concession of Hutchison’s two ports on the canal. Mulino also ordered an audit into the company.
Mulino, after the talks with Rubio, dismissed any immediate threat of US retaliation and reiterated Panama’s ownership of the canal. He ruled out any negotiations with the US over the canal’s control. Chinese officials, on the other hand, have expressed that they have always respected Panama’s sovereignty and have no intention of infringing on it.
The BRI, launched by China in 2013, aims to build infrastructure and improve global trade. Panama was the first Latin American country to sign on to the initiative, and as part of the scheme, a two-party Chinese-led consortium is building a US$1.3 billion bridge over the waterway.
"The announcement by President Jose Raul Mulino that Panama will allow its participation in the CCP's Belt and Road Initiative to expire is a great step forward for US -Panama relations, a free Panama Canal, and another example of POTUS (President of the United States) leadership to protect our national security and deliver prosperity for the American people," Rubio posted on X after departing the country and hailing his visit as a “great success.”
Norman Castro, one of the lawyers in the case brought before the Supreme Court, told reporters the contract "violates what the constitution says in about 10 articles."
"After a detailed analysis of the contract... we decided that an action for unconstitutionality was the appropriate means" to challenge the concession," said Julio Macias, another lawyer behind the suit.
The complaint also accuses the Hong Kong subsidiary of not paying taxes and benefits due to a series of advantages that are allegedly against the law. So far, no evidence has been offered to back up the allegations, but it will be required for the courts. Time will tell.
There were also allegations of corruption which prompted Mulino to order an investigation into the company.
Such is the strength of the venom Rubio spews up to get his way. Hopefully, the Mulino investigations and court actions will reveal the truth: that Hutchison Ports is just a bona fide company, conducting its business in a respectful and peaceful way as it does with dozens of companies around the world.
The attack on Hutchison is nothing more but a show of sinophilia paranoia by the so-called most powerful man on Earth, Donald Trump, and lacky Marco Rubio. Together, they are stalking the world like a bull in a china shop, using bullying tactics to force the world leaders to their knees in a kowtow manner.
On his Truth Social network, Trump has also claimed – without proof – that Chinese soldiers have been deployed to the canal and that “Panama is, with great speed attempting to take down the 64 per cent of signs which are written in Chinese. “They are all over the Zone,” he said.
But the “Zone” – a former American enclave bordering the canal – hasn’t existed since 1979.
Prime US TV network CNN fact-checking Trumps usual blabberings said that if the scenario Trump describes sounds like the plot of a movie, well, it was. In the 2001 movie “The Tailor of Panama,” which starred Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush, the US invaded Panama after receiving bogus intelligence that China was trying to secretly buy the canal.
