Trump targets Hong Kong company in world purge

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.

Mark Pinkstone

** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **

Hong Kong is facing a dilemma as more locals are spending their dollars outside of the city than what the visitors are bringing in.

Relaxed visa/permit restrictions for locals and foreign residents alike is making it easier for travel to the mainland while inbound traffic crossing the boundary is low budget and spending less on accommodation and food.

Tourism is an important pillar for Hong Kong’s economy. In pre-COVID times, tourism accounted for about four per cent of the territory’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provided for about six per cent of total employment.

In Hong Kong’s heydays, the city saw about 65 million tourists in 2018, of which 51 million came from the mainland. It was boom time for retailers and restaurants. Long queues of mainland shoppers would line the streets along Canton Road and elsewhere waiting to buy luxury items from Gucci, Prada, Tiffany’s and other high-end stores which set up shop in Hong Kong to tap this lucrative market.

Today many restaurants and retail outlets are closing down, especially in the boundary towns of Sheung Shui and Yuen Long. The market is no longer there, and high rental costs make it almost impossible to survive.

During the 2025/2026 festive season, Hong Kong saw a 25.6 per cent rise in inbound trips on New Year’s Day 2026 (664,338 trips), but this was still countered by a massive 515,954 outbound exits on the same day.

Winston Yeung, chair of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants & Related Trades, told local media that business was sluggish during the Christmas holiday, with some restaurant owners calling it “the slowest business at Christmas over the past 10 years.”

Unfortunately, the local market is not propping up the tourism outlets. Instead, the locals are traveling in large numbers to Shenzhen and Macau and other parts of China for day trips or extended holidays, thereby providing a leakage in the local economy.

While Hong Kong received more than an estimated 45 million visitors last year, more than about 100 million departures were recorded by the Immigration Department of locals leaving Hong Kong by plane, train or bus mainly to the mainland (75 per cent), and to other major Asian destinations.

Hong Kong has 320 hotels offering 92,907 rooms, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Despite mainlanders’ choice of more budget accommodation, occupancy rates for the hotel industry remained high at 88 per cent last year. The major hotels are not affected by the change in mainlanders’ preferences as they rely more on the affluent international tourist, visiting Hong Kong for business, conventions or holidays.

Property developer, Caldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) says Hong Kong’s hospitality market currently presents various investment-ready assets including rare investment opportunities for upper upscale and luxury hotels. These high-end properties are particularly attractive due to their resilience, as they are less reliant on Chinese group travelers and enjoy sustained spending power among affluent individual travelers and international visitors. This makes them attractive for investors seeking stable returns in a dynamic market.

To encourage locals to spend more at home and at the same time provide a bonus for tourists, Hong Kong has organised a series of mega events, many held in the new sports stadium on the site of the old Kai Tak airport in Kowloon. Traditional events in 2026 will include the French May Arts festival in March, Hong Kong Book Fair in July, Hong Kong performing Arts Expo in October, the World Snooker Grand Prix in February, and, of course, the international dragon boat races in June.

Blockbusters will include BlackPink World tour in January, the Hong Kong marathon, which draws in runners and their supports from around the world, and the Hong Kong Tennis Open also in January.

That is good for the inbound and outbound tourists alike. But more needs to be done to tip the tourism scales to a surplus for Hong Kong’s economy to grow at a faster pace. As the saying goes charity starts at home, so it is up to us as local residents who have reaped the benefits of the city to spend more in local restaurants and retail outlets than spend it elsewhere. Support local enterprises. After all, the restaurants in Hong Kong are ranked among the best in the world and are tax free as against a value-added tax applied to restaurants and shops in the mainland.