Panama Canal
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Thursday,
December 2, 1999 JO BOWMAN and AGENCIES Li Ka-shing hit back yesterday at suggestions by US President Bill Clinton that his firm's plans for the Panama Canal mean "the Chinese" will control the waterway. The tycoon denied the operations of Hutchison Whampoa, which is to run container ports at each end of the canal from January 1, would give either him or "the Chinese" control over canal activities. "We cannot possibly control the canal," he told a Red Cross function in Admiralty. "We are running a container port business which has nothing to do with the operation of the Panama Canal. "We are not even the largest operator in Panama, compared with some of the American and Taiwan operators." Mr Li was speaking hours after Mr Clinton said in Washington he did not expect any adverse consequences from "the Chinese running the canal". Trying to allay US senators' fears that Mr Li, who enjoys good relations with Beijing, would help the PLA "take over" the area, Mr Clinton said "the Chinese" would be a responsible partner. "I think the Chinese will in fact be bending over backward to make sure that they run it in a competent and able and fair manner," he said. "I would be very surprised if any adverse consequences flowed from the Chinese running the canal." Retired US admiral Thomas Moorer, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week China was plotting to take over the canal and suggested Beijing could use the area to launch a nuclear attack on America. Hutchison has a 25-year lease to run Panama cargo ports after the US cedes control over the waterway on December 31. Admiral Moorer's comments echo fears expressed in recent months by several US lawmakers, among them Senate Majority leader Trent Lott who in August described Hutchison as an "arm of the PLA", a claim Mr Li denied at the time. US State Department spokesman James Rubin has stressed that Hutchison, which controls 10 per cent of global maritime container traffic, had contracts to run the ports, not the canal itself |