Under pressure from Washington, CK Hutchison announced in March that it had agreed to sell off its 80 percent ownership stake in 43 port holdings outside of China and Hong Kong—including the two in Panama—to a consortium led by the U.S.-based investment firm BlackRock. The move seemed to be an early win for Trump’s brand of aggressive dealmaking diplomacy.

China’s growing influence over key infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean has set the Trump administration on edge. Nowhere have the White House’s concerns been sharper than around the Panama Canal , where Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison operates two ports. U.S. President Donald Trump has inaccurately characterized the firm’s activity as tantamount to China “operating the Panama Canal” and vowed that his administration would be “taking it back.”

China’s growing influence over key infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean has set the Trump administration on edge. Nowhere have the White House’s concerns been sharper than around the Panama Canal, where Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison operates two ports. U.S. President Donald Trump has inaccurately characterized the firm’s activity as tantamount to China “operating the Panama Canal” and vowed that his administration would be “taking it back.”

Under pressure from Washington, CK Hutchison announced in March that it had agreed to sell off its 80 percent ownership stake in 43 port holdings outside of China and Hong Kong—including the two in Panama—to a consortium led by the U.S.-based investment firm BlackRock. The move seemed to be an early win for Trump’s brand of aggressive dealmaking diplomacy.

But Beijing had other plans. Within weeks of the announcement, China launched a regulatory and public relations blitz against CK Hutchison, forcing the private company to back away from the planned sale.