Posted on July 21, 2025
Europe illustrates how Chinese companies gained market share to fuel the nation’s exports
Chinese shipping giant Cosco has majority ownership of Spain’s Port of Valencia.
By James T. Areddy, Daniel Kissand Ming Li
When a Hong Kong conglomerate set plans this year to sell its global network of shipping ports to an American-led investment group, two facilities in Panama got most of the attention. But the real action is in Europe, where Chinese business interests have spent decades accumulating port holdings.
Hong Kong-based CK Hutchisonagreed in March to sell more than 40 ports in 23 nations to an investor group led by American financial firm BlackRock, and the parties had aimed to reach a definitive agreement on the $23 billion deal at month-end. Now, Beijing is trying to muscle into the deal and carve out a stake for its giant shipping group Cosco, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Politics have hung over Hutchison’s container-handling facilities at either end of the Panama Canal since it first began operating them in the 1990s. The sales plan came together after President Trump’s vow to bring the canal under U.S. control.
The most substantial impact on China’s ambitions from the port deal might be in Europe, a continent crucial to Beijing’s trade and diplomatic ambitions. Nearly half of the facilities on the block are in Europe or North Africa. Trump’s trade tariffs, meanwhile, have Europe bracing for a deluge of Chinese goods that have been rerouted away from the U.S.
