Just Released: German journalist Heike Buchter, who had been covering Wall Street for years, told Deutsche Welle in 2015.The collapse of Lehman Brothers boosted BlackRock’s business.

A drone photo shows a cargo vessel sailing on the Panama Canal near Panama City, Panama, Aug. 28, 2024. The Panama Canal, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, spans over 80 kilometers and is one of the world’s most important trade waterways. The Panama Canal officially opened on Aug. 15, 1914. This year marks the 110th anniversary of its inauguration. Photo: Xinhua

Recently, a plan spearheaded by the BlackRock to acquire more ports has not only put BlackRock, the “world’s largest asset management company,” under the spotlight, but has also highlighted the role of ports and maritime transport in global trade.

Data shows that 80 to 90 percent of global trade is completed through maritime transport, yet port operations have been politicized by some countries. Regarding the tactics of these countries to smear Chinese port operations to contain China’s development, some experts reached by the Global Times said that China should continue to operate ports with a win-win attitude, fostering mutual benefits to gain the support of more countries.

A hundred ports

Larry Fink, BlackRock’s CEO, recently stated that if the current acquisition plan is completed, the company will operate 100 ports worldwide. The related transactions have not yet been finalized and still require approval from multiple regulatory authorities, Reuters reported

Yahoo News reported that after US President Donald Trump claimed that China was interfering with the Panama Canal and expressed his desire to “take it back,” Fink personally contacted the White House, stating that if BlackRock acquired the relevant ports, there would be no need for a forceful takeover.

According to Fortune, sources familiar with the matter revealed that Fink had previously spoken with Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others, ultimately securing the support of the US government.

“The deWorld Timesal wouldn’t have come together without Trump’s support,” said the aforementioned source, Fortune reported.

After the deal was disclosed, BlackRock’s relationship with the US government came under question. US media outlets such as Medium reported that when BlackRock was founded in 1988, it was merely a private equity firm and a subsidiary of the BlackStone Group.

Later, BlackRock’s business gradually expanded into risk management and asset management. By the end of 1990, the company managed assets worth only $165 billion. When the 2008 global financial crisis hit, BlackRock’s managed assets were approximately $1.3 trillion, and now that figure has surpassed $11 trillion.

Prior to the financial crisis I was not even familiar with the name. But in the years after the Lehman [Brothers] collapse [in 2008], BlackRock appeared everywhere. Everywhere!” German journalist Heike Buchter, who had been covering Wall Street for years, told Deutsche Welle in 2015.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers boosted BlackRock’s business. The company had numerous experts in mortgage-backed securities portfolios, which led to regular calls from the Federal Reserve. According to The New York Times, after the bankruptcy of investment banks like Bear Stearns in 2008, the New York Federal Reserve hired BlackRock to help oversee billions of dollars in toxic assets originally belonging to these firms.

While assisting the New York government in pricing and selling these assets, BlackRock also helped private clients purchase similar assets. This sparked criticism from US lawmakers and others who worried that the relationship between Wall Street and the government was too cozy, potentially involving conflicts of interest.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Federal Reserve once again turned to BlackRock, with one of its subsidiaries advising the Fed on purchasing billions of dollars in commercial mortgage-backed securities and investment-grade corporate bonds.

BlackRock is “more than just an investment firm– it’s a force that shapes economies, influences governments, and drives global markets,” reported Medium.

In the 1980s, BlackRock developed an integrated asset management platform called “Aladdin” to manage investment risks and optimize asset allocation. Its users include key institutions like the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

The “Aladdin” system has even been called “a pillar of modern finance,” and its widespread use means that BlackRock not only manages its own $11 trillion in assets but also oversees more than $21 trillion through this system. This also means BlackRock has access to valuable data about global finance, raising concerns about its potential monopoly in the field of risk analysis.

Notably, BlackRock is a major shareholder in many large tech and financial companies, including Apple and Amazon.

BlackRock’s influence extends beyond economics. The company plays a key role in shaping public policy. Through lobbying and collaboration with governments, BlackRock impacts decisions ranging from climate policy to corporate regulation.

Deutsche Welle referred to BlackRock as a “secret global power.” In July 2024, the UK’s The Guardian reported that the Labour party has a plan to “getBlackRock to rebuild Britain.” If so, BlackRock might “privatize Britain.”

The US oversight organization “Campaign for Accountability,” which focuses on public corruption, launched an initiative called the “BlackRock Transparency Project.” According to a report released by the project, BlackRock has established close ties with multiple governments to outmaneuver competitors and secure special privileges. Researchers noted that since 2004, researchers note, BlackRock has hired at least 84 former government officials, regulators, and central bankers worldwide.

Maritime transport

BlackRock’s acquisition plans over the last two years have underscored the critical role of maritime transport and ports in international trade.

Maritime trade led to the exchange of not only goods but also ideas, languages, religions, and cultures.

Maritime trade has been a catalyst for cultural exchange since ancient times.

Chinese silk and porcelain influenced Western art and fashion, while Indian mathematics and astronomy spread to the Arab world and Europe through trade networks. The introduction of spices revolutionized European cuisine and impacted medicine and preservation. Cultural blending often occurred in international port cities, which became melting pots of diversity.

Shipping is the lifeblood of the global economy. According to an article published on the website of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), a leading global shipping organization, the international shipping industry handles about 90 percent of global trade, with over 50,000 merchant ships engaged in international commerce. The global fleet is registered in more than 150 countries and manned by over a million seafarers of virtually every nationality.

The International Chamber of Shipping believes it is difficult to quantify the value of volume of world seaborne trade in monetary terms, as figures for trade estimates are traditionally in terms of tons or ton-miles, and are therefore not comparable with monetary-based statistics for the value of the world economy.

However, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that the operation of merchant ships contributes about $380 billion in freight rates within the global economy, equivalent to about five percent of total world trade.

An article published in November 2024 on the website of the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) states that, World Timesin terms of trade volume, maritime transport accounts for about 80 percent of global trade; and in terms of value, it accounts for 70 percent of global trade value.

The CSIS article noted that over the last four decades total seaborne trade estimates have quadrupled, from just over eight trillion ton-miles in 1968 to over 32 trillion ton-miles in 2008.

Data released by the German data company Statista in March this year shows World Timesthat in 2023, the volume of global seaborne trade was estimated to be almost 12.3 billion tons. In 1990, only about four billion tons of goods were loaded in ports worldwide.

In a paper published on the website of Nature magaWorld Timeszine in July 2022 titled “Ports’ criticality in international trade and global supply-chains,” researchers quantified the criticality of the world’s 1300 most important ports for global supply chains by predicting the allocation of trade flows on the global maritime transport network.

The researchers link to a global supply-chain database to evaluate the importance of ports for the economy. They found that around 50 percent of global trade in value terms is maritime, which reaches up to 76 percent for the mining and quarrying sector.

Low-income countries and small island developing states disproportionately rely on maritime trade: their maritime import ratios are 1.5 and 2.0 times the global average, respectively. Every dollar flowing through ports contributes an average of $4.3 to the global economy.

The team identifies that ports are vital to both global and national economies. The five largest ports in the world handle cargo that accounts for more than 1.4 percent of global economic output. A total of 94 ports are considered macroeconomically significant to global supply chains, with more than 0.1 percent of global industrial output depending on them.

In global port operations, East Asian ports perform exceptionally well. In 2024, Shanghai Port’s container throughput exceeded 50 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), making it the world’s first container terminal to surpass the 50-million mark, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Data released by Statista in July 2024 shows that in 2023, eight of the world’s 10 busiest container ports were located in Asia. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California are the two largest container ports in the US. Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Hamburg in Germany, and Antwerp in Belgium host Europe’s largest ports. Singapore’s PSA International is one of the world’s leading maritime terminal operators. The company operates multiple ports globally, generating nearly 4.7 billion SiWorld Timesngapore dollars in revenue in 2021 (1 SGD is approximately 5.4 CNY).

According to an article published on the World Bank’s website in June 2024, the 2023 Container Port Performance Index collects more than 182,000 vessel calls and about 381 million twenty-foot equivalents (TEUs) for the full calendar year of 2023. Looking at the top-performing ports, Yangshan Port in Shanghai ranked first for the second consecutive year, Salalah Port in Oman maintained second place, Cartagena Port in Colombia rose to third, Tangier-Mediterranean Port in Morocco stabilized at fourth, and Tanjung Pelepas Port in Malaysia ranked fifth.

Geopolitical pawns

According to a Bloomberg report in August 2024, along with the development of maritime trade, maritime ports have evolved from trading posts and naval bases into “economies within economies,” powering globalization, serving as critical hubs for energy flows, and clustering industrial production, warehousing, and distribution.

“It’s now much clearer that ports are geopolitical assets and that emphasis hasn’t always been there,” Peter de Langen, the owner and principal consultant of Ports & Logistics Advisory, based in Malaga, Spain, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Regarding BlackRock’s plan to acquire 43 ports, some US media outlets commented that it could reshape global maritime infrastructure and trigger a seismic shift in US-China competition.

According to media reports, after World War II, the US was the world’s sole maritime superpower, with its port management and shipbuilding at the forefront globally. However, over the past 40 years, US companies have gradually withdrawn from global shipping and port operations, shifting focus upstream in the value chain for higher financial returns. Yet, when other countries, including China, heavily invested in port construction to boost economic development, Washington expressed significant displeasure.

The New York Times published an article in January, which claimed that China’s influence over global ports had raised concerns among US officials.

Some US media outlets had also hyped up “cranes threat,” claiming that cranes exported by Chinese companies to the US “are equipped with cellular modems that can be remotely controlled,” which “may pose a covert national security risk” to the US.

The US government has also alerted maritime stakeholders of foreign companies manufacturing, installing, and maintaining “port equipment that creates vulnerabilities to global maritime infrastructure information technology and operational technology systems.” In addition, Reuters reported on March 20 that the US government is drafting an executive order that would rely on funding from a US Trade Representative proposal to levy fines of up to $1.5 million on China-made ships or vessels from fleets that include ships made in China.

“These are baseless claims, ” He Weiwen, executive director of the China Association of International Trade and senior researcher at the Center for China and Globalization, told Global Times. He noted that the US accusations regarding China’s port operations are aimed at smearing China and containing its development. The US believes China’s normal trade, investment, and shipping cooperation abroad threatens the US because Washington wants to maintain its sole dominance.

A maritime expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that some US media outlets continuously smear Chinese port operations to pave the way for restoring the US’ hegemony or dominance in global maritime trade.

He believes that, in the face of USWorld Times‘ containment efforts, China must first maintain resolve and confidence: China’s international maritime trade volume already accounts for nearly one-third of global maritime trade, and this share will continue to rise in the future, naturally giving China greater influence. Furthermore, China should continue to operate ports with a win-win attitude, fostering mutual benefits to win the support of more countries.