Despite loss of Panama Canal, China investing US$23.9 billion in global seaports: study | South China Morning Post

VirtualRichDream · 2026-03-06T23:15:31+00:00

Chinese state institutions have invested $23.9 billion in 363 global ports to counter potential supply chain decoupling, particularly focusing on high-income countries. This strategy highlights China's influence on maritime trade and challenges U.S. efforts to mitigate this dominance.

VirtualRichDream

2026-03-06 23:15:31

Abstract generation in progress

Though a Hong Kong operator has lost control of the Panama Canal, one of the world’s most pivotal waterways for merchant ships, researchers said this week that Chinese state institutions have funded hundreds of other seaports around the world.

Specifically, they have invested a total of US$23.9 billion over the past quarter century in 363 ports and related activities abroad, according to AidData, a research lab at US university William & Mary. The lab called the investments a safeguard against East-West supply chain decoupling.

The research team’s just-released study said 45.1 per cent of the Chinese port finance portfolio goes to locales in 20 “high-income” countries including Australia, Brunei, New Zealand, Spain and Singapore, financing 30 individual ports.

“China’s nearly ubiquitous presence in the world’s top ports means that the US cannot currently insulate itself from Chinese supply chains, in either peacetime or conflict,” said the researchers in the study report, titled “Anchoring Global Ambitions, Beijing’s Ports Financing and the Race for Maritime Dominance”.

Years of China-US trade disputes, rising tariffs and export curbs have raised fears of supply-chain decoupling, which was accentuated in 2025, when US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington might push for delisting US-traded Chinese companies.

Last month, Panama took control of two ports at the Atlantic and Pacific entrances of the strategic Panama Canal after a Supreme Court ruling voided the concession of a Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison subsidiary, a move that Washington called “in line with President Donald Trump’s drive to curb Chinese influence”.

The most heavily financed sites include Hambantota International Port in Sri Lanka, the Australian ports of Melbourne and Newcastle, the Autonomous Port of Kribi in Cameroon and Israel’s Haifa Port. Financing totals ranged from US$1.13 billion for Haifa to US$1.97 billion for Hambantota, AidData found.

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