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The deal had the imprint of a Hong Kong billionaire nicknamed “Superman” for his empire building. One of the tycoon’s companies, which for years has run two ports on the Panama Canal, had been thrust into a broader showdown between China and the United States.
So the billionaire, Li Ka-shing, got out of the firing line by notching a $19 billion deal to sell the business to a group of deep-pocketed American investors.
Or so it seemed.
China’s leaders are now threatening to stop Mr. Li and the company he controls, CK Hutchison, from seeing the deal through, accusing the conglomerate of betraying Beijing.
The face-off tests how far Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, is willing to go to exercise his control over business in Hong Kong.
A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 with Beijing’s promise it would mostly leave the city to govern itself, allowing it to remain a bridge to China but keep a system of freewheeling capitalism. Mr. Li, as a Chinese entrepreneur who tapped investors in the West to build an empire that included property, shipping and telecommunications, embodied that distinction.
Beijing’s potential intervention in the port deal between CK Hutchison and a group led by BlackRock now endangers the separation, prominent financiers and business leaders in Hong Kong said. It could also destroy Mr. Xi’s golden goose at a critical moment for China’s economy.
After recording losses in four of the past five years, Hong Kong’s stock market is on fire — a sign of enthusiasm for China’s economy.
Chinese companies are choosing Hong Kong over London or New York to list their shares. It offers Mr. Xi a bragging point: Since President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the S&P 500 has fallen about 5 percent while Hong Kong’s stock market is up more than 20 percent.
Lawyers and regulatory experts generally believe that the authorities in Hong Kong or Beijing will be reluctant to stop the deal — and it is not clear that there is much they can do. But the mere possibility has put Hong Kong on edge. Beijing and its proxies in the media have kept up a near-daily drumbeat of criticism.
Commentaries last week in Ta Kung Pao, a newspaper owned by the Chinese government, called the agreement between CK Hutchison and BlackRock “profit seeking and unrighteous” and a matter of “national security.” The Beijing government agency that oversees Hong Kong policy reposted the comments on its website.
Beijing’s leaders are now threatening to stop Mr. Li and the company he controls, CK Hutchison, from seeing the deal through, accusing the conglomerate of betraying Beijing.
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