There's been a lot of confusion about Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and port security in the Bahamas, mainly because I think that the media reports on what's happened haven't been very clear. I didn't understand myself until last night what had actually happened and why it's a concern. And as much as I'd like the problem to be chalked up to the administration, or Hutchison (a company that charges me too much for my electricity), or even China, I think in this case it's actually (sort of) the Bahamas' fault.
Hutchison, controlled Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing, the world's 10th-richest man, is among other things the world's largest port operator: it has no ports in the U.S., but it does operate in Asia, Europe (Felixstowe in the UK and Rotterdam amongst other places), Mexico and the Bahamas...including the port of Freeport in the Bahamas, the cause of the current row.
In Hong Kong, where Hutchison is based, the company already IS screening US-bound containers for nuclear materials and hidden people...under the supervision of 12 US customs officers based in the city. Singapore is doing the same thing, and the U.S. government is trying to expand the program to other exporting countries.
The theory is that by the time a nuclear weapon or dirty bomb gets into a US port it's already too late, and so containers need to be inspected before they arrive. It's probably a good idea, but it also requires the cooperation of other countries, something that the curren administration has proven incredibly inept at. (An entirely separate story in my opinion).
So far, so good...but the problem is that the Bahamas' government has refused to have a US customs officer stationed on its soil to supervise Hutchison's screening of containers, according to people including Sen. Charles Schumer, who passed through my part of the world recently. This, in my opinion, is probably in partly a reaction to Bush administration policy, even if the approach to the Bahamian government wasn't mishandled (never a given for these clowns.) Schumer said that the U.S. should make another approach to the Bahamanians at a higher diplomatic level.
So the U.S. government had a choice, either let containers coming in from the Bahamas go unscreened or let Hutchison screen the containers on its own. Given this choice of half a loaf or none, the administration seems to have chosen half a loaf. It's actually not an unreasonable decision, given the lack of better options.
The contract may have pretty much had to go to Hutchison, because the company already operated the port and I'm don't know whether it would make fiscal or logistical sense to award a screening contract to another contractor (someone on the ground in the Bahamas should probably check). In any event, the amount is small.
If there's a scandal to do with Hutchison doing port screening, it's probably a lot more prosaic than secret Chinese plots to take over the world -- and a lot more to do with usual behavior under capitalism. Some shipping companies have claimed that Hutchison is overcharging them for the cost of screening, making a profit off of something that is supposed to be charged on a cost-recovery basis. Hutchison has of course denied this.
I can't find any published stories on the Web (at least as of yesterday) that explain this accurately, so I've done the reporting myself. Sorry for the lack of links.