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SINO-CUBAN TIES CONCERN U.S.

Article Excerpt
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US government and many conservatives have expressed fears that the People's Republic of China is extending its influence in Latin America. While some of these concerns come from the paranoid right, they also have showed up in the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal, State Department pronouncements, and Congressional hearings.

China moves into Panama

China's activity in this hemisphere has increasingly figured in US policy concerns because of its business activities in Panama after the US handed the canal over to Panama at the end of 1999. Although these concerns were largely muted in White House and State Department statements, they were openly and sometimes hysterically voiced by rightists in Congress, the media, and the Cuban exile community.

Before the canal handover, Panama awarded a contract to run the ports of Cristobal and Balboa to a subsidiary of the Hong Kong shipping company Hutchinson Wampoa. The US was particularly displeased that Hutchinson Wampoa won the concession even though its bid was higher than rival bidders Kawasaki-Cooper T. Smith, a Japanese-US consortium, and California-based Bechtel, which had strong backing from Washington (see EcoCentral, 1996-09-05).

Since then, many conservatives who opposed the 1977 treaty relinquishing the canal have accused the State Department and the Democratic Party of compromising national security by ignoring the supposed Chinese threat. During a 1998 hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

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