Trump threatened to take back the canal because of what he called Chinese influence. CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong company, is selling its control in a firm that ran two ports on the canal.

China’s top office on Hong Kong affairs has reposted an attack on CK Hutchison’s decision to sell its Panama Canal ports, amplifying a Beijing-backed newspaper’s warnings for the Li Ka-shing-owned conglomerate to “think twice” about which side it stands on.

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s company CK Hutchison Holdings, which recently sold its Panama Canal ports, should think twice about which side it wants to stand with, according to a scathing newspaper commentary posted by Beijing’s top office for the city’s affairs on its website.