Ports row threatens China investment push

President Xi Jinping is seeking to navigate China a steady path prior to investors rattled by a global trade war. A spat over a shipping lane coveted by US President Donald Trump is testing that path.

- LUCILLE LIU SHIRLEY ZHAO

Hours after Mr Xi pledged at meeting global executives in Beijing last week to nurture a "predictable" business environment, China's market regulator said it would open a review into billionaire Li Ka-shing's deal to sell 43 ports around the world, including two in the Panama Canal, citing the need to "protect public interests."

Last weekend, Chinese officials overseeing Hong Kong affairs shared articles on social media accusing CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd of acting "in concert with US hegemony" over the $22.8 billion sale. Those broadsides came after the US president framed the prospective deal to a group featuring BlackRock Inc as America "reclaiming" the famed waterway.

Beijing's attempts to influence the operations of a private firm in Latin America risk undercutting Mr Xi's bid to boost confidence in the world's No. 2 economy, where foreign investment last year fell to the lowest level in decades. Derailing the deal could also give credence to the US leaders' claims CK Hutchison — ultimately controlled by the Communist Party — is perceived with implications for private Chinese companies worldwide.

"This flies in the face of the charm offensive for private firms," said George Magnus, research associate at Oxford University's China Centre, formerly chief economist at UBS. "Beijing has, in effect, told the world there is no real difference between private and public in the Chinese Communist Party's eyes."