PANAMA CITY — Under intense criticism that his company’s presence in
the Panama Canal zone provides the communist Chinese not only a
stronghold — but a strategic chokepoint — in the Western Hemisphere,
the managing director of Hutchison Whampoa Limited has lashed out at
critics.
John E. Meredith, Managing Director of Port Operations for the Hong
Kong-based company, answered critics on Tuesday. The company is owned
by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, who has known ties to the
Chinese military.
Making good on the controversial 1978 treaty signed by then-President
Jimmy Carter, the U.S. turned over control of the
American-built-and-financed canal to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999. One month
earlier, in a rare moment of candor, President Clinton admitted to
reporters that the Chinese would be “running the canal.”
“I would be very surprised if any adverse consequences flowed from
the Chinese running the canal,” said the president. On advice of his
handlers, he retracted the statement within a few days.
Choke point
Under a contract adopted in some controversy, Hutchison Whampoa
operates the Port of Balboa on the Pacific entry to the Panama Canal and
the Port of Cristobal on the Atlantic entry to one of the world’s most
strategic choke points.
Meredith claimed that he, his company and the company’s owner,
billionaire Li Ka-Shing, were “pure capitalists” — having “no contacts
with China” — with “absolutely no involvement with China.”
Saying he was authorized to “speak for” owner Li Ka-shing, Meredith
called Li an “admirable man” who “crawled under barbed wire to escape
from communism,” began “selling plastic flowers,” and built an empire.
That such a man was a communist-puppet was ridiculous, said Meredith.
Meredith claimed his critics, whom he named — Caspar Weinberger, the
National Security Center, and the United States Intelligence Council —
were lying, distributing “absolute rubbish” about his company, and
“destroying investment opportunities in Panama.”
Meredith angrily claimed several times that Weinberger, the former
U.S. defense secretary, had “lied” in testimony before Congress,
offering as an example Weinberger’s misidentification of the Rodman
Naval facility as an Air Force base.
Testifying before the Committee on Armed Services of the U.S. Senate,
Weinberger had questioned the bidding process that gave Hutchinson the
port contracts of the “very strategic, commanding positions” at the
“principal ports” entering the Panama Canal. He said he was troubled by
a Panamanian law prohibiting U.S. military vessels from interfering with
the “business of the company in the existing ports.” Weinberger also
said Hutchinson was “a Chinese company” that “will not be able to
survive if it does not do something that the Chinese government might
direct it to do.”
Responding to the charge of “corrupt bidding,” Meredith said the
bidding to operate the ports involved five steps, because every
responding company offered Panama a different vision of port
operations. In the end, his company offered to do more for $22 million
for 25 years — $750 million.
Losing bidders have privately alleged that officials of Panama might
have taken money under the table. Panamanian labor leader, Ray Bishop,
told WND that the 1989 invasion of Panama had removed “Ali Baba
(President Noriega); however, the 40 thieves remain at large.”
Meredith’s surprise appearance took place in Panama City at the
Marriott Hotel before 22 Americans on a fact-finding mission headed by
Maj. Gen. Richard Anson, a former commander of the U.S. Army’s Southern
Command based in Panama. The group included Joe Becker, from the office
of Rep. Ron Paul; Amy Taylor, representing Rep. Richard Pombo; and Lou
Moore, for Rep. Jack Metcalf.
The mission was funded by private donations to two private
organizations: the National Security Center and the United States
Intelligence Council. Both groups had previously expressed concern that
the operation of the two entry ports of Balboa and Christobal put the
whole Panama Canal in strategic danger — a view shared by Republican
Leader Trent Lott among others.
Meredith claimed to have “not a single Chinese” on his company
payroll in Panama.
Indeed, the Chinese presence in Panama is difficult to see.
Meredith’s company operates in Panama under the name Panama Ports
Company. Neither ground tours nor helicopter fly-overs of the Hutchison
ports (participated in by this reporter) revealed any containers of the
China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), the official merchant marine of
the People’s Republic of China and one of the world’s largest shipping
companies.
COSCO-owned vessels, however, pass through the Panama Canal nearly
everyday, and its ships and containers can be seen most days at a dozen
ports in the United States, but not, apparently, at Hutchinson port
facilities. Meredith said “COSCO makes calls at our ports,” and shares
one berth in Hong Kong, but claimed no other connections to COSCO.
Chinese labor helped build the Panama Canal and its cross-isthmus
railroad. Panama has a multi-ethnic population, including long-standing
Chinese citizens. Though total figures are uncertain, some 30,000
Chinese may have recently immigrated to Panama. Tomas Cabral, a
Panamanian journalist, told WND it is widely believed that new Chinese
immigrants are flooding into Panama and that corrupt officials are
selling visas.
Meredith described the communist Chinese takeover of Hong Kong as
almost idyllic, saying there has been “no change” in the rule of law and
in ordinary business practices; China merely “flew the flag” over Hong
Kong and fielded fewer troops there than the British.
Hutchison Port Holdings (sans “Whampoa” — the port operations arm of
Hutchison Whampoa Limited, which owns the Panama Ports Company, SA,
operating the ports of Balboa and Cristobal) has its main office in Hong
Kong. It runs ports at 16 locations worldwide, including the Bahamas,
Netherlands and United Kingdom. Its promotional materials describe its
Panama ports as “strategic access for transatlantic and transpacific
trades” and a “gateway of … strategic importance …”
Claims about Chinese dangers in Panama increase concerns of those
seeking to stop a positive vote in Congress (on May 22) which will award
China permanent normal trading relations. Opponents of special trade
status for China also cite its violations of human rights, proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction and nuclear threats to Taiwan and the
U.S.
Previous stories:
U.S. knew of China canal threat
U.S. lowers flag on Panama Canal
See Adm. Thomas H. Moorer’s exclusive commentary:
Chokehold for China
Reporter Roger Canfield is a
critic of Hutchison Whampoa’s presence in Panama.
Out in the cold
WND Comics