Word: whampoa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...concession to domestic political concerns. The canal once symbolized America's ability to project its power abroad, and conservative Republicans have questioned the wisdom of giving it up. Some Republican legislators - and Pat Buchanan - have even used the fact that Hong Kong-based port company Hutchison Whampoa will manage the facility for Panama to suggest that the strategic waterway may fall under Chinese control in the event of a crisis. Even though that scenario is dismissed as far-fetched by Panamanians and most U.S. analysts, the White House is clearly taking no chances with Al Gore's election year looming...
...canal to Panama by the end of this year. But that has some U.S. hawks worried. Both Buchanan and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott have cited a Chinese threat in the isthmus, based on the fact that the company contracted to operate the canal is Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., which they assert has links to the Chinese military. But Lott's warning in August that "U.S. naval ships will be at the mercy of Chinese-controlled pilots and could even be denied passage by Hutchison" and Buchanan's charge last week that the transfer compromises national security...
...Jimmy Carter sold the handover treaty to Congress, there was much whining about turning the canal into little more than an expensive toll road. The latest version of this anxiety adds a national security tweak: fear of China. In 1997, the Panamanian government finalized a rich deal with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., based in Hong Kong, to run two ports near the entrances to the canal. American-owned Bechtel lost out to Hutchison under a less than transparent bidding process...
...former Canal Zone, meanwhile, another diplomatic tiff concerned Panama's decision to award a contract to run the ports of Cristobal and Balboa to Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. in a deal that Ambassdor Hughes said was unfair to American bidders. And in a confused transaction that gives potential investors little confidence, the government leased land to Hutchison that was also needed by the Panama Railroad and the local airport authority. The resulting legal mess was only recently resolved...