On Tuesday morning at 10:00 am Eastern Time, the US House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security held a hearing titled “Examining the strategic port investments of the Chinese Communist Party in the Western Hemisphere and their impact on homeland security, Part One.”
The witnesses included Dr. Issac Kardon, Dr. Matthew Kroenig, Dr. Ryan Berg, and Cary Davis, President and CEO of the American Association of Port Authorities.
Currently, 80% of global trade is conducted through maritime shipping, with ports serving as key hubs connecting international trade and providing naval support bases. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) not only controls seven of the world’s top ten ports domestically but also owns or has investments in state-owned enterprises in ports in over 60 countries, spanning across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, South America, and the Mediterranean.
In December last year, in Peru, a massive port named Chancay, in which a CCP central enterprise, China Ocean Shipping Company, was involved, officially opened. CCP leader Xi Jinping attended the event via video call, demonstrating the party’s high level of importance placed on such investments.
Voice of America previously reported that the CCP strategically controls global chokepoints without firing a shot. According to one of China’s largest port business companies, China Merchants Group, the number of overseas ports operated by Chinese enterprises was less than 10 in 2000, but by 2019, projects completed overseas by the CCP through acquisitions, investments, construction, aid, and leasing had reached a total of 101.
These projects include the port of Hamburg between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the port of Piraeus in Greece that serves as the “crossroads of the seas” in the Aegean Sea radiating through Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the port of Djibouti guarding the entrance to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and the port of Gwadar in Pakistan, among others.
In recent years, Western politicians and military officials have repeatedly warned against curtailing the ambitions and extravagant overseas projects of the CCP.
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Source: ganjingworld.com/live/1hdpmu3tlmm4xNns3qHZQshbC1pj1c