In early March, Hong Kong industrial conglomerate CK Hutchison agreed in principle to a deal to sell 45 ports globally to Blackrock with the deal set to be signed April 2.

Now, that deal won’t happen as China’s market regulator will ‘review’ the deal, halting it, or at least the two ports in Panama won’t be sold.

There were rumours that Chinese leadership was furious with the deal as they viewed it as leverage in any broader deal with the United States.

On the other side, NBC reported recently that Trump directed the US military to draw up options to increase the American troop presence in Panama … [including] the less likely option of U.S. troops’ seizing the Panama Canal by force.”

This is an interesting one but Xi does seem to grasp the transactional nature of the Trump admin and the importance of leverage.