A Homeland Safety Division subcommittee heard testimony on how one can counter China’s rising maritime menace.
Consultants testifying earlier than a congressional subcommittee mentioned Chinese language firms have stakes in ports all through the Western Hemisphere—together with 5 main U.S. ports—that pose safety considerations.
Whereas China’s affect on the Panama Canal often is the shiny object in the intervening time, China has been steadily securing port investments and significant infrastructure agreements all through America’s yard.
Testimony on the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Safety on Feb. 11 advised China has made in particular strategic port investments in Panama, Peru, and Brazil. Consultants mentioned Chinese language firms maintain curiosity in three Mexican ports, one at St. John’s Harbor in Antigua and one at Freeport, Jamaica.
The listening to examined China’s strategic port investments within the Western Hemisphere and what America can do to counter the communist regime’s affect at dwelling and within the Americas.
Near House
Issac Kardon, a senior fellow for China research on the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace, testified about China’s affect at U.S. ports in the course of the listening to.
Kardon mentioned that two Chinese language state-owned enterprises—Costco Transport and China Retailers Group—together with the Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, are the main Chinese language companions in U.S. ports.
These Chinese language companies maintain minority stakes in terminals on the ports of Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, and Miami at Lengthy Seaside, he mentioned.
Virtually 130 ports globally have some extent of Chinese language possession or operation, based on testimony from Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program on the Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research.
Greater than half of China’s ports sit on main transport lanes and strategic choke factors within the Western Hemisphere, he added.
Beijing’s nationwide safety legislation quantities to state-mandated espionage, Berg mentioned, referring to necessities that Chinese language firms cooperate with state intelligence gathering.
“The USA has shaken its post-war stupor,” mentioned Berg. “The U.S. is not asleep on the swap, as strategic rivals set down roots in our shared neighborhood.”
Panama Canal
Two of Panama’s 5 principal ports—Balboa on the Pacific aspect and Cristóbal on the Atlantic aspect of the Panama Canal—are managed by CK Hutchison, which is a big concern for a lot of safety analysts who concern the waterway might be sabotaged or blocked ought to a battle between Washington and Beijing erupt.
Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee, mentioned President Donald Trump was proper to concentrate on Chinese language firms working ports on the Panama Canal, a necessary artery for world commerce and U.S. naval operations.
Panama’s International Minister Javier Martinez-Acha (R) walks subsequent to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after their assembly on the presidential palace in Panama Metropolis on Feb. 2, 2025. Arnulfo Franco/AFP through Getty Pictures
“This offers Beijing a strategic place over one of many world’s most essential waterways and gives the [Chinese Communist Party] CCP with a chance to exert affect over business transport, collect intelligence on American and allied vessel site visitors, and doubtlessly limit the mobility of our navy in a time of disaster,” Gimenez mentioned.
After taking workplace in January, Trump doubled down on his assertion that the canal was being operated by China and vowed to intervene, prompting denials from Beijing and Panama.
“China is working the Panama Canal,” Trump mentioned throughout his inaugural speech. “And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it again.”
Gimenez argued that the US can’t and gained’t settle for a situation the place a overseas adversary controls infrastructure crucial to U.S. safety, dusting off the Monroe Doctrine to bolster his level.
“For greater than two centuries, beneath the rules of the Monroe Doctrine, the US has been the first guarantor of stability and safety within the Western Hemisphere, guaranteeing that commerce routes important to our financial safety stay free from overseas adversarial dominance,” he mentioned.
Safety guards stroll previous a billboard for the Belt and Street Discussion board for Worldwide Cooperation on the discussion board’s venue in Beijing on Could 13, 2017. Wang Zhao/AFP through Getty Pictures
Countering China
Matthew Kroenig, an Atlantic Council suppose tank vice chairman, mentioned America ought to work with neighboring international locations to “decouple” from Chinese language investments in ports and different crucial infrastructure.
Kroenig mentioned Panama’s audit of ports managed by Chinese language firms might provide a chance for U.S. firms and its allies to win management of the ports if the concession is rebid.
Latin American international locations eying financial advantages from permitting Chinese language investments could not perceive the complete prices that come due additional into the offers.
“Via its investments, China cements entry to sources, captures elites, positive aspects leverage over governments, shifts nationwide insurance policies in its favor, and undermines democratic norms, transparency, and environmental requirements,” mentioned Kroenig, who beforehand labored on safety points on the CIA and Division of Protection.
Kroenig mentioned America ought to make it clear that safety dangers exist for Latin American international locations contracting with China for crucial infrastructure, telecommunications, satellites, surveillance, and uncommon minerals.
Consultants famous that the communist regime is thought for embedding software program into tools—akin to container cranes—which might go away international locations open to Chinese language espionage.
Nevertheless, commerce with China involving agriculture, for instance, wouldn’t affect nationwide safety, he mentioned.
Members of the Hutchison Port Holdings Belief board of administrators pose for a photograph throughout a ceremony to mark the inital public providing of Hutchison’s China port unit of Hong Kong on the Singapore inventory change on March 18, 2011. Simin Wang/AFP through Getty Pictures
As an alternative of making an attempt to match China’s port investments symmetrically, the US ought to leverage its community of maritime companions in Asia and Europe to compete with China, Kardon added.
Berg added that the US might leverage the U.S. Worldwide Improvement Finance Company and different multilateral monetary establishments to launch a Chinese language port buyback program in Latin American international locations.
Likewise, the US ought to assist international locations take away Chinese language tools from ports, akin to Huawei tools or ZPMC Chinese language cranes.