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And you don’t know jack-sh*t about anything:

(Eagle Forum)

In order to cash in on the cash-rich Chinese, Panama manipulated the bidding process, holding repeated rounds of bids, for leases for the U.S.-built ports of Cristobal on the Atlantic end of the canal and Balboa on the Pacific end. The 50-year leases were awarded to a Chinese Hong Kong corporation named Hutchison Whampoa operating under the name Hutchison Port Holdings.

Hutchison Whampoa had come in only fourth in the bidding, after the Japanese firm Kawasaki/I.T.S., the U.S. firm Bechtel, and the Panamanian American company M.I.T. For exclusive control of the two ports, Hutchison Whampoa agreed to pay $22.5 million a year plus what one Panamanian called “bucket loads of money” under the table, and Panama’s Law No. 5 was passed on January 16, 1997 to confirm the deal.

Law No. 5 blatantly violates the Panama Canal Neutrality Treaty, Article V, which stipulated that only Panama is allowed in defense sites. By giving Hutchison “priority” for its business operations, Law No. 5, Art. 2.11d, also violates the treaty’s Article VI, which guaranteed “expedited” and “head of line” passage for U.S. warships.

Art. 2.10c of Law No. 5 gives Hutchison Whampoa the “right” to operate piloting services, tugs and work boats, which translates into control of all the Canal’s pilots. Art. 2.10e grants the “right” to control the roads to strategic areas of the Canal, and Art. 2.12a grants priority to all piers, including private piers.

Art. 2.8 gives Hutchison Whampoa the right to “transfer contract rights” to any third party “registered” in Panama. Those rights could be transferred to China, or even Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Libya or North Korea.

The Hutchison leases even violate Panama’s own constitution, Art. 274, which requires a plebiscite on Canal matters. None was held. Law No. 5, Art. 2.1, also grants “first option” to Hutchison Whampoa to take over the U.S. Rodman Naval Station, the Pacific deep-draft port facility capable of handling any warship. The Chinese will then have the power to exclude U.S. warships while admitting Communist warships.

The billionaire chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Ka-shing, was a business and political buddy of the late Deng Xiaoping and now has the same close relationship with both Jiang Zemin and the Riady financial empire of Indonesia. No doubt that’s why he controls most of China’s commercial ports and seaborne trade as well as most of the dock space in Hong Kong.

Li was China’s chief agent in facilitating China’s smooth takeover of Hong Kong in 1997. Hutchison Whampoa partnered in several enterprises with China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), which is directly controlled by the People’s Liberation Army, and served as a middleman in China’s deals with the U.S. firms Hughes and Loral.

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