HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Stocks in Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison tumbled Friday after Chinese officials overseeing the city reposted a newspaper opinion piece blasting the sale of its lucrative Panama Canal ports following pressure from United States (US) President Donald Trump.

The president has complained that China controls the vital waterway and the US was overpaying to use it, even refusing to rule out a military invasion of Panama to regain control.

Last week the business empire built by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing sold its port operators business, including those in the canal, in a $22.8 billion deal with a US-led consortium saying it was purely commercial and not related to recent political news.

But the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office on Thursday republished in full a newspaper op-ed that demanded the firm choose “which side it stands on.”

“Trump and the US did not treat this transaction as a normal commercial move and blatantly interfered, using it to spread global hegemony,” said the article, first published in Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao earlier that day.

“The US will definitely use (the Canal) to push a political agenda, and Chinese shipping trade there is set to be constrained.”

The article said it was understandable for internet users to lambast the deal as “spineless kowtowing,” “putting profit above all,” “ignoring national interests... and betraying and selling out all Chinese people.”

A company facing such a major decision should think hard and “decide what its position is, and which side it stands on,” the article concluded.