The city’s chief executive said a deal between the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison and BlackRock, a major American investment firm, requires “serious attention.”

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee notes ‘extensive discussions’ on the sale of the ports to BlackRock and says transactions have to follow the law.

Hong Kong’s leader says his government opposes coercion by foreign governments, an allusion to comments by U.S. President Donald Trump, but stopped short of criticizing a prominent local conglomerate’s decision to sell its Panama Canal port assets to a consortium including American investment bank BlackRock Inc.