Hong Kong
Infrastructure deals with foreign countries – including airports and ports – are instrumental for China to exert greater influence on other countries.
This is showing itself in the Pacific at present. China has already sewn up a security cooperation deal with Solomon Islands, and now Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be visiting Fiji, Solomons, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and possibly Kiribati one after the other to sign deals relating to things like airports and runways.
But perhaps ports are the most useful asset for a militant-minded China, as such facilities could have a direct military application. As well as servicing Chinese warships, they could act as a potential conduit for Chinese weapons overseas.
Does China, for example, produce shadowy ISO containers able to launch missiles? Russia offer such Klub-K missiles for sale. As Rosoboronexport says in its promotional literature, the Klub-K can be delivered by any kind of transport capable of shipping marine containers using civil logistics.
Such containerized missiles can be launched from cargo ship, port, truck or train. Hidden among millions of other containers, they would be impossible to track and could be offloaded at a Chinese-controlled port ready to launch a pre-emptive or retaliatory strike against an opponent.
Containing cruise missiles like the YJ-18C, containers could be smuggled anywhere in the world like a Trojan horse, and even kept for years in a climate-controlled storage site awaiting launch. Missiles with electromagnetic pulse warheads targeting an American naval base could instantly put warships and submarines out of action, for example.
This is not all speculation either, as a mock-up of such a container missile system was shown at a Chinese defense exhibition as long ago as 2016. That is the worst-case scenario for Chinese-operated ports overseas, but there are numerous other advantages that China gains through overseas investment in such infrastructure. Chinese commercial firms currently operate terminals in 96 ports spread across 53 countries.
