Forget the mudslingers, we still have the Army

Ports are vital strategic assets for any nation no matter where they are sited, says ABN Amro analyst James Miller.

"If you don't believe that just have a look at what's happening with the P&O Ports and Dubai bid in the United States."

Partly because of the recent furore in the US, the Hutchison/Lyttelton proposal has generated quite a stir in Christchurch.

A flurry of letters to the anglocentric garden city's local newspapers has raised concerns about Hutchison's alleged links with the Chinese Government and its Army.

Much of that appears to be based on allegations made several years ago by conservative US congressman Dana Rohrabacher when Hutchison purchased port operations at both ends of the Panama Canal.

Rohrabacher said Hutchison had acted as middleman in deals involving the People's Liberation Army, claims denied by the company.

However, Hutchison, with its vast mainland Chinese holdings, clearly has links with the Chinese state.

Indeed, within a short time of Hutchison boss Li Ka-shing's purchase of Hutchison Whampoa in 1979, he was appointed to the board of China International Trust and Investment Corp (Citic), China's state-owned investment company. He also served on several other Chinese state advisory groups.

Asian Pacific affairs expert Ralph Pettman, until recently a professor of international relations at Victoria University, said Hutchison's expansion across the world had parallels to the international growth by Japanese companies in previous decades.

"It doesn't do the host country much in the way of profits, all the profits go back to the home country and that's, of course, why they do it. It's like a tentacle reaching out into another place and using its resources to maximise your gains.

"The Japanese were never seen as a [security] threat ... and if it's cast in commercial terms it's not a threat.

"A lot gets made out of this which is rubbish. It's not as if these companies have standing armies with which they can defend these holdings if things go wrong and it's not as if the New Zealand Army couldn't occupy Lyttelton if it needed to."

Pettman dismissed concerns about the alleged links between Hutchison and China's Government and military.

"So what? You could say similarly vile things about some American companies."

While it was easy to make political mileage out of such connections "in terms of national security, I don't think it means much".

Export NZ chief executive Bob Walters believed security issues would continue to be "well taken care of by an efficient New Zealand Customs service ... regardless of the ownership of the port".

Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst Marcus Curley said some people would sling mud at Li because of his heritage "but when you look at the business deals and the way in which Hutchison runs its operation, it's difficult to identify any negatives in the way it invests or operates".