Navigating the Many Issues Surrounding China’s Ports Abroad

Publication Date: 

The May 7, 2026 issue of The Diplomat contains an Op-Ed piece published by Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations.  In this piece, the 2nd in a 4-part series on China’s footprint in overseas ports, Dr. Blanchard highlights a myriad of economic factors driving countries to involve China in their ports as investors, contractors, and operators.  It relatedly identifies why third-parties are anxious about the economic implications of China’s participation  in foreign ports with such parties envisioning, among other things, supply chain insecurity, trade flow manipulation, and lost business opportunities .  Dr. Blanchard’s Op-Ed further enumerates what political gains host/participant countries anticipate flowing from China’s port participation and the negative political expectations that other countries and companies hold.  As the piece remarks, there are few countries anticipating military gains from China’s enlarged military footprint.  In contrast there are many third party countries positing adverse military consequences to China’s involvement in ports abroad.  As Dr. Blanchard points out, economic, political, and military effects do not tell the entire story.  China’s role in foreign ports can generate good and bad environmental and social externalities that deserve consideration, too.

The Op-Ed appears as Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, “Navigating the Many Issues Surrounding China’s Ports Abroad,” The Diplomat, May 7, 2026 and can be found at https://thediplomat.com/2026/05/navigating-the-many-issues-surrounding-chinas-ports-abroad.  Copyright remains with the original holder.