Panama court annuls Hong Kong firm’s canal port concession
By AFP
anuary 30, 2026
The Port of Balboa at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal in Panama City on October 6, 2025 - Copyright AFP/File MARTIN BERNETTI
Panama’s Supreme Court annulled on Thursday the concession allowing Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison to operate ports at the Panama Canal, a year after US President Donald Trump threatened to seize the crucial passageway claiming China controlled it.
The case came after Trump threatened just days into his second term to take back the canal — built by the United States and handed to Panama in 1999 — as he said China was effectively “operating” it.
The Supreme Court found the laws which allowed CK Hutchison Holdings to operate two of the five ports of the canal “unconstitutional,” according to a court statement.
The CK Hutchison subsidiary concerned by the ruling rejected the judgement, saying that it “lacks legal basis”.
The ruling “jeopardizes not only PPC (Panama Ports Company) and its contract, but also the well-being and stability of thousands of Panamanian families who depend directly and indirectly on port activity,” it said.
The lawsuit to cancel the concession was brought before the Panamanian high court last year on allegations that it was based on unconstitutional laws and that the Hong Kong business was not paying taxes.
Panama Ports Company — a CK Hutchison Holdings subsidiary — manages the ports of Cristobal on the canal’s Atlantic entrance and Balboa on the Pacific side.
The concession was automatically renewed in 2021 for another 25 years.
Shares in CK Hutchison declined more than 4 percent in morning trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.
CK Hutchison Holdings is one of Hong Kong’s largest conglomerates, spanning finance, retail, infrastructure, telecoms and logistics.
It has sought to sell the Panama Canal ports to a consortium led by US asset manager BlackRock. The status of that proposal is unclear following the court ruling.
– ‘Taking it back’ –
Chinese state media has previously slammed the proposed sale, while Beijing officials have urged parties involved to exercise “caution”, warning of legal consequences should they proceed without their clearance.
In April, the Panamanian Comptroller’s Office accused the firm of allegedly failing to pay the state $1.2 billion from its operations, according to an audit by the agency in charge of overseeing public spending.
Panama has been trying to avoid being dragged into what President Jose Raul Mulino last year called a “geopolitical conflict.”
Mulino has insisted the canal’s neutrality is intact and has urged Washington not to entangle Panama in its rivalry with Beijing.
Still, Panama has taken steps to ease the pressure from Washington.
Last year it withdrew from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and earlier this month it announced new joint US-Panama canal defense drills — the fourth since 2025 — aimed at boosting readiness around the 50‑mile (80‑kilometre) trade route.
The canal has become a recurring flashpoint as Trump pursues what he calls the updated “Donroe Doctrine,” asserting expanded US authority in the Western Hemisphere.
In his inauguration address, the US president said: “We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back.”
At the same time, Beijing has sharply criticized moves against its assets in Panama, including the demolition late last year of a monument honoring Chinese workers who helped build the canal and the 19th‑century railway that preceded it.
The United States and China remain the canal’s top users, with around five percent of global maritime trade transiting from there.
By AFP
anuary 30, 2026
The Port of Balboa at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal in Panama City on October 6, 2025 - Copyright AFP/File MARTIN BERNETTI
Panama’s Supreme Court annulled on Thursday the concession allowing Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison to operate ports at the Panama Canal, a year after US President Donald Trump threatened to seize the crucial passageway claiming China controlled it.
The case came after Trump threatened just days into his second term to take back the canal — built by the United States and handed to Panama in 1999 — as he said China was effectively “operating” it.
The Supreme Court found the laws which allowed CK Hutchison Holdings to operate two of the five ports of the canal “unconstitutional,” according to a court statement.
The CK Hutchison subsidiary concerned by the ruling rejected the judgement, saying that it “lacks legal basis”.
The ruling “jeopardizes not only PPC (Panama Ports Company) and its contract, but also the well-being and stability of thousands of Panamanian families who depend directly and indirectly on port activity,” it said.
The lawsuit to cancel the concession was brought before the Panamanian high court last year on allegations that it was based on unconstitutional laws and that the Hong Kong business was not paying taxes.
Panama Ports Company — a CK Hutchison Holdings subsidiary — manages the ports of Cristobal on the canal’s Atlantic entrance and Balboa on the Pacific side.
The concession was automatically renewed in 2021 for another 25 years.
Shares in CK Hutchison declined more than 4 percent in morning trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday.
CK Hutchison Holdings is one of Hong Kong’s largest conglomerates, spanning finance, retail, infrastructure, telecoms and logistics.
It has sought to sell the Panama Canal ports to a consortium led by US asset manager BlackRock. The status of that proposal is unclear following the court ruling.
– ‘Taking it back’ –
Chinese state media has previously slammed the proposed sale, while Beijing officials have urged parties involved to exercise “caution”, warning of legal consequences should they proceed without their clearance.
In April, the Panamanian Comptroller’s Office accused the firm of allegedly failing to pay the state $1.2 billion from its operations, according to an audit by the agency in charge of overseeing public spending.
Panama has been trying to avoid being dragged into what President Jose Raul Mulino last year called a “geopolitical conflict.”
Mulino has insisted the canal’s neutrality is intact and has urged Washington not to entangle Panama in its rivalry with Beijing.
Still, Panama has taken steps to ease the pressure from Washington.
Last year it withdrew from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and earlier this month it announced new joint US-Panama canal defense drills — the fourth since 2025 — aimed at boosting readiness around the 50‑mile (80‑kilometre) trade route.
The canal has become a recurring flashpoint as Trump pursues what he calls the updated “Donroe Doctrine,” asserting expanded US authority in the Western Hemisphere.
In his inauguration address, the US president said: “We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back.”
At the same time, Beijing has sharply criticized moves against its assets in Panama, including the demolition late last year of a monument honoring Chinese workers who helped build the canal and the 19th‑century railway that preceded it.
The United States and China remain the canal’s top users, with around five percent of global maritime trade transiting from there.
By AFP
January 30, 2026
Balboa port on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal - Copyright AFP Sameer Al-DOUMY
Danish firm Maersk will temporarily take over operation of two ports on the Panama Canal from Hong Kong company CK Hutchison, whose concession has been annulled, the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) said Friday.
Panama’s Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated Hutchison’s contract following repeated threats from President Donald Trump that the United States would seek to reclaim the waterway he said was effectively being controlled by China.
The canal, which handles about 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of world trade, was built by the United States, which operated it for a century before ceding control to Panama in 1999.
On Friday, the AMP said port operator APM Terminals, part of the Maersk Group, would be a “temporary administrator” of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on either end of the waterway.
It would take over from the Panama Ports Company (PPC) — a subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings — which has managed the ports since 1997 under a concession renewed in 2021 for 25 years.
The Supreme Court found, without providing reasons, that the PPC and Hutchison’s role was “unconstitutional.”
The United States on Friday welcomed the decision.
But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing “will take all measures necessary to firmly protect the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies.”
For its part, PPC said the ruling “lacks legal basis and endangers… the welfare and stability of thousands of Panamanian families” who depend on its operations.
– Continuity –
The annulment of the PPC contract was requested last year by the office of the comptroller — an autonomous body that examines how government money is spent.
It argued the concession was “unconstitutional” and said Hutchison had failed to pay the Panamanian state $1.2 billion due.
The PPC argues it is the only port operator in which the Panamanian state is a shareholder and says it has paid the government $59 million over the past three years.
“It is very hard to imagine that (the court ruling) was not influenced by persistent US pressure on canal ownership,” said Kelvin Lam, a China-focused economist at the consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics.
He said foreign investors would likely be increasingly cautious about committing capital “to strategic infrastructure projects in the United States’ backyard.”
Panama has always denied Chinese control over the 50-mile waterway, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and is used mainly by the United States and China.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, who has called the CK Hutchison contract “extortionate,” said Friday the canal will continue operating “without disruption.”
He added there would be a transition period leading up to a new concession “under terms and conditions favorable to our country.”
Mulino did not specify when a new concession will be put on offer.
APM Terminals said in a statement earlier Friday it was “willing” to operate the ports “to support operational continuity” and to mitigate any risks to essential services.
CK Hutchison Holdings — founded by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing — announced in March 2025 it would offload a 90 percent stake in PPC and sell a slew of other non-Chinese ports to a group led by US asset manager BlackRock.
But the transaction fizzled out after China protested.
‘Superman’ Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong billionaire behind Panama ports deal
By AFP
January 30, 2026
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, a rags-to-riches billionaire, and his CK Hutchison conglomerate are at the centre of US-China rivalry after deciding to sell their ports concessions in strategic Panama - Copyright AFP/File ANTHONY WALLACE
Tommy WANG
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and his conglomerate CK Hutchison have been tied up in global US-China rivalry since announcing a controversial $19 billion sale of strategic ports in Panama last year.
The Li family owns 30 percent of CK Hutchison, which controls ports, retail, infrastructure and other businesses in dozens of countries and reported revenue of $61.4 billion in 2024.
Li was Asia’s ninth-richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in January, with a total net worth of more than $42 billion.
Nicknamed “Superman” for his business acumen, the 97-year-old and his companies are woven into the fabric of Hong Kong life through everything from internet services to supermarket chains.
A Panama Supreme Court decision to annul CK Hutchison’s concession there on Thursday showed how container ports in geopolitically strategic locations have become a prized global currency.
– From refugee to billionaire –
Li was born in the southern Chinese city of Chaozhou in 1928.
A refugee from the Sino-Japanese War who fled mainland China to Hong Kong, he started a business in 1950 manufacturing plastic flowers and named it Cheung Kong after China’s Yangtze River.
He reaped big profits in the 1960s after diversifying into property, and extended his businesses into many sectors in the following decades.
Li also had a longstanding interest in overseas markets, making investments in the Canadian property and energy sectors in the 1980s.
He swam against the tide after Beijing crushed the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989, becoming the largest Hong Kong investor in mainland China, primarily in the property sector, while foreign businesses fled.
He continued to invest heavily on the mainland during the 1990s, the dedicated capitalist courting Beijing’s communist leaders as China began to emerge as an economic superpower.
The extent of Li’s investments served as a powerful catalyst for foreign capital entering China in the following decades, propelling its economic miracle.
Li also supported China’s education and healthcare sectors through substantial philanthropic funding.
He enjoyed close ties with three generations of Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s economic opening up.
– Weakening ties –
That closeness to China’s leadership weakened after Xi Jinping took power in 2012.
Beijing hardened its stance towards tycoons under Xi, including those from Hong Kong, and Li found his commercial and political manoeuvres under increasing criticism by government-affiliated media.
He has offloaded major property investments in China in recent years in a move seen as part of a quest for stability and a sign of being less reliant on the mainland.
Li announced a sweeping reorganisation of his vast business empire in 2015 following the sale of some Chinese assets.
Many of the more recent expansions were instead overseas, with CK Hutchison now operating in some 50 countries across telecoms, ports, infrastructure, and retail.
Li and his family are also reportedly thinking of spinning off and selling assets across its units.
Chinese state media have criticised Li for his apparent decision to divest from some mainland markets and for supposedly showing sympathy to pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong in 2019.
Beijing authorities intensified pressure on CK Hutchison last year, repeatedly criticising the conglomerate’s sale of its Panama Canal ports.
The Beijing-based authority overseeing Hong Kong affairs reposted a newspaper editorial titled “Great entrepreneurs have always been outstanding patriots” after the sale plan was announced in March.
There has been slow progress in the CK Hutchison port sale negotiations since then, with analysts telling AFP that political factors have become a drag.
Panama’s Supreme Court found the laws that allowed CK Hutchison to operate two of the five canal ports “unconstitutional”, ending its decades-long concession.
The ports operator, CK Hutchison subsidiary Panama Ports Company, said the decision “lacks legal basis” and threatens thousands of livelihoods.
By AFP
January 30, 2026
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, a rags-to-riches billionaire, and his CK Hutchison conglomerate are at the centre of US-China rivalry after deciding to sell their ports concessions in strategic Panama - Copyright AFP/File ANTHONY WALLACE
Tommy WANG
Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and his conglomerate CK Hutchison have been tied up in global US-China rivalry since announcing a controversial $19 billion sale of strategic ports in Panama last year.
The Li family owns 30 percent of CK Hutchison, which controls ports, retail, infrastructure and other businesses in dozens of countries and reported revenue of $61.4 billion in 2024.
Li was Asia’s ninth-richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in January, with a total net worth of more than $42 billion.
Nicknamed “Superman” for his business acumen, the 97-year-old and his companies are woven into the fabric of Hong Kong life through everything from internet services to supermarket chains.
A Panama Supreme Court decision to annul CK Hutchison’s concession there on Thursday showed how container ports in geopolitically strategic locations have become a prized global currency.
– From refugee to billionaire –
Li was born in the southern Chinese city of Chaozhou in 1928.
A refugee from the Sino-Japanese War who fled mainland China to Hong Kong, he started a business in 1950 manufacturing plastic flowers and named it Cheung Kong after China’s Yangtze River.
He reaped big profits in the 1960s after diversifying into property, and extended his businesses into many sectors in the following decades.
Li also had a longstanding interest in overseas markets, making investments in the Canadian property and energy sectors in the 1980s.
He swam against the tide after Beijing crushed the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989, becoming the largest Hong Kong investor in mainland China, primarily in the property sector, while foreign businesses fled.
He continued to invest heavily on the mainland during the 1990s, the dedicated capitalist courting Beijing’s communist leaders as China began to emerge as an economic superpower.
The extent of Li’s investments served as a powerful catalyst for foreign capital entering China in the following decades, propelling its economic miracle.
Li also supported China’s education and healthcare sectors through substantial philanthropic funding.
He enjoyed close ties with three generations of Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s economic opening up.
– Weakening ties –
That closeness to China’s leadership weakened after Xi Jinping took power in 2012.
Beijing hardened its stance towards tycoons under Xi, including those from Hong Kong, and Li found his commercial and political manoeuvres under increasing criticism by government-affiliated media.
He has offloaded major property investments in China in recent years in a move seen as part of a quest for stability and a sign of being less reliant on the mainland.
Li announced a sweeping reorganisation of his vast business empire in 2015 following the sale of some Chinese assets.
Many of the more recent expansions were instead overseas, with CK Hutchison now operating in some 50 countries across telecoms, ports, infrastructure, and retail.
Li and his family are also reportedly thinking of spinning off and selling assets across its units.
Chinese state media have criticised Li for his apparent decision to divest from some mainland markets and for supposedly showing sympathy to pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong in 2019.
Beijing authorities intensified pressure on CK Hutchison last year, repeatedly criticising the conglomerate’s sale of its Panama Canal ports.
The Beijing-based authority overseeing Hong Kong affairs reposted a newspaper editorial titled “Great entrepreneurs have always been outstanding patriots” after the sale plan was announced in March.
There has been slow progress in the CK Hutchison port sale negotiations since then, with analysts telling AFP that political factors have become a drag.
Panama’s Supreme Court found the laws that allowed CK Hutchison to operate two of the five canal ports “unconstitutional”, ending its decades-long concession.
The ports operator, CK Hutchison subsidiary Panama Ports Company, said the decision “lacks legal basis” and threatens thousands of livelihoods.
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