Prying open closed minds
America's top anti-terrorism fighter inspected port security measures at the city's Hongkong International Terminals and Modern Terminals two weeks ago. Michael Chertoff, the homeland security chief, was interested because the US government is negotiating a contract with Hutchison Whampoa: it would make Hutchison responsible for detecting nuclear materials inside US-bound cargo passing through the port in Freeport, Bahamas.
The contract is controversial, because this would be the first time that a foreign company would be involved in running a sophisticated US radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present. A positive reading would set off US alarm bells at an anti-terrorism centre in northern Virginia, 1,280km away.
Only six years ago, conservative politicians in the United States were up in arms about Hutchison's acquisition of a contract to operate container terminals at the Panama Canal. Trent Lott, then the Senate majority leader, called Li Ka-shing's company 'an arm of the People's Liberation Army', and Mr Li himself nothing but a 'cog' of the Communist Party.
Seven years later, those cries of alarm have died down, although it would be wrong to conclude that the atmosphere in Washington has changed fundamentally. The recent clamour about an Arab company taking over operations at port terminals in six US cities underlined the latent xenophobia of many American legislators.
The sentiment of congressmen towards foreign companies - especially Chinese ones - was also in evidence when China National Offshore Oil Corp tried to acquire the American company Unocal. Currently, the US State Department is under fire for its decision to buy 15,000 computers from Lenovo Group - a Chinese company that last year purchased IBM's personal computers division.
Critics say the deal would help China spy on American embassies by planting extra hardware and software in the computers.
Naturally, the proposal to allow Hutchison Whampoa to check for radioactive materials in the Bahamas has also stirred controversy. Among those who voiced scepticism was Senator Charles Schumer, who was quoted as saying: 'Giving a no-bid contract to a foreign company to carry out the most sensitive security screening for radioactive materials at ports abroad raises many questions.'
Senator Schumer also co-sponsored a bill to impose a 27.5 per cent tariff on Chinese imports if Beijing failed to revalue its currency.
But the senator changed his mind about the yuan, after holding talks with officials in Beijing recently. Then he came to Hong Kong and visited Hutchison's facilities and, as a result, appears to have changed his mind on that issue as well.
Hong Kong is the only port in the world that uses both scanners for nuclear material and X-ray scanners to screen sensitive and dangerous materials.
After returning to Washington, Senator Schumer asserted that the United States needed to immediately implement the cargo-screening system used in Hong Kong.
'Hong Kong is more advanced than any American port I've seen,' he said at a Senate committee hearing. 'We should be ashamed. They inspect every container and we don't.' Senator Schumer has become a critic of US legislators who are ignorant of how effectively foreign companies maintain port security.
Senator Schumer's reaction shows how important it is for American officials and legislators to keep an open mind. It also underlines how important it is for China and Hong Kong to make information available, and to welcome visits by overseas officials and legislators. The future of our economy may well depend on it.
Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based writer and commentator
