This is CBS, I On the World.

I'm John Batchel with Professor Evan Ellis of the U.S. Army War College.

This is the New World Report.

Evan is traveling in Mexico City, but we look south from Mexico City to the Panama Canal

zone, now called the Republic of Panama.

However, the Financial Times headline, Black Rock to buy Panama Canal

ports after pressure from Donald Trump, deal worth $22.8 billion, involves sale of bulk of those

owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate C.K. Hutchinson. The back story on this is very brief. The Trump

administration believes Panama is at risk on the People's Republic of China. And as evidence,

one of the pieces certainly is that C.K. Hutchinson, which is a Hong Kong business that owns ports around the world and is

supervised by a multibillionaire, Mr. Lee, who lives in Hong Kong, owns a port at one side of the

Panama Canal and a port at the other. There are other competitors, but certainly the Hutchinson port facilities are elaborate and well done.

However, Black Rock is now purchasing for a sizable sum, meaning that one barrier to the Chinese is now erected.

They don't have access to Hutchinson, if that was accurate.

Evan, are you surprised by this?

John, I think all of us have been surprised by the scale of the deal.

And, of course, a $22.8 billion deal, which involves 43 ports and 23 countries, is not done

overnight.

So this has probably been negotiated for a while.

And so, you know, this probably goes far back before Marker Rubio's trip and President Trump's

most recent statements, but certainly probably was accelerated by President Trump's initial

comments about Panama, the Chinese in the Panama Canal.

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