Panama agrees with Donald Trump to start audit of Hong Kong company

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Panama’s government has begun an audit of a Hong Kong company that operates ports on both sides after US President Donald Trump warned he wanted to restore the pipeline because of Chinese influence.

Trump repeated it in his inauguration speech on Monday. Criticisms in recent weeks About the Panama Canal, which handles 3 percent of the world’s seaborne trade each year.

In response, PanamaThe Comptroller General’s Office published a video on social media platform X showing about 10 men and women being booked into the Hutchison Ports Audit Office in Hong Kong by bus to begin an audit. For Trump.

“Our auditors (the company) arrived today to begin an exhaustive audit aimed at ensuring efficient and transparent use of public resources,” the Comptroller General’s Office reported in X.

Hutchison Ports, Hong Kong’s listed conglomerate port arm CK Hutchison HoldingsIt operates 53 ports in 24 countries, including the UK, Germany and Hong Kong.

It first won the bid to operate two ports in 1997, the year Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule by Britain. The offers are renewed in 2021.

Controlled by the Li Ka-shing family – one of Asia’s richest – CK Hutchison Holdings also operates an extensive global infrastructure portfolio, including Northumbrian Water in the UK and Australian Gas Networks.

China does not control the canal, but some Washington officials are increasingly concerned about the presence of Chinese companies in the area. In the year After cracking down on pro-democracy protests in 2019 and introducing tougher national security legislation, the Hong Kong government has drawn closer to China.

CK Hutchison did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Panama audit.

In the year The United States took over the construction of the canal, which opened in 1914, but in In 1999, it handed over full control to the Central American country.

Tolls to cross the canal, which uses fresh water to run the key, have increased dramatically. Big drought in 2023 Made changes to limits and later how slots are assigned.

“We have been treated badly by this stupid gift that should never have been done,” Trump said. We didn’t give it to China, we gave it back to Panama.

Panama is one of the US’s closest allies in Central America and has been trying to stop immigration to the US. The famous Darien Gap. The country severed ties with Taiwan to recognize China in 2017 during Trump’s first term.

Panama President Jose Raul Molino – Law and order conservative – On Monday, he published a strongly worded statement “totally rejecting” Trump’s words and saying that Boy is Panamanian.

He said that no nation is interfering in the management of the canal and the best way to solve the issues raised by Trump is through dialogue. He also disagreed with Trump’s behavior when America returned the canal to Panama.

“The canal was not handed over by anyone, it was the result of a generational struggle that ended in 1999,” he wrote in X.