The South China Morning Post reports:
A Hong Kong-based company has been forced to sell its American container port after the US government raised security concerns about its parent being a Chinese state-owned shipping giant.
Orient Overseas (International), which is majority-owned by Cosco Shipping Holdings, will sell off its entire interest in Long Beach Container Terminal in California for US$1.78 billion (HK$13.97 billion) in cash, according to a stock exchange filing on Tuesday morning.
The sale to a US infrastructure fund is the fulfilment of a national security agreement signed last year and is expected to net OOIL a profit of US$1.29 billion (HK$10.15 billion), the company said in the announcement.
Cosco purchased Orient Overseas in 2018, giving it control over the Long Beach port.
In related news, today there were several new reports (see SCMP and VOA) on the difficulties getting visas now facing American and Chinese students and scholars. Bloomberg notes (porous paywall) that China could win from the tech cold war: “By driving Chinese researchers back home, new export controls are more likely to hurt than help the U.S.”
Finally, a steady hum of positive noises about the U.S.-China trade negotiations continues to emanate from Washington and Beijing, but there is no concrete news. Today’s reports:
Tariffs that started the U.S.-China trade conflict now dog its finish / WSJ (paywall)
White House's Mulvaney says China trade talks will be resolved one way or another within two weeks / CNBC
China and United States focus on progress before fresh round of trade war talks / SCMP
Negotiators are in Beijing for talks on ending U.S.-China trade war / NPR
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—Jeremy Goldkorn and the SupChina team
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