Red China Attains Global Control of Ports
Overlooked during America's preoccupation with the Dubai ports deal is a much more imminent threat - China's methodical campaign to gain control of global ports that are strategically positioned to support military or economic actions against the United States - a move that has gone virtually unnoticed.
The powerful Chinese-owned Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. is now the world's biggest cargo terminal operator, according to London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants. It also is the world's largest port owner.
Hutchison Port Holdings has assumed control of scores of potential economic choke points, including 169 berths at 41 ports worldwide. These facilities control about 15 percent of global maritime container traffic.
Some of Hutchison's ports lie near key sea lines of communication, such as the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and the eastern coast of the United States.
Of the eight international regions with choke points labeled by the Department of Defense as "U.S. lifelines and transit regions," Hutchison has ports in six.
"Amidst the furor over a U.A.E. corporate takeover of major U.S. and Canadian seaports, scant notice has been given to the longstanding and continuing threat from the PRC/Triad [People's Republic of China and Chinese mobsters] 'business' presence at seaports around the world, including the U.S. and Canada," stated a top-level Canadian port security analyst.