Exclusive | Interview: HKND chairman Wang Jing aims to keep politics out of controversial canal

Nicaragua’s planned alternative to the Panama Canal just got a boost in popularity as a delighted Nicaraguan delegation left Hong Kong after visiting the canal’s architects at China Railway Construction Corporation on the mainland and in Hong Kong.

The canal is by no means uncontroversial. The US$40 billion (HK$310 billion) project, the world’s largest in civil engineering, has led to street protests in the capital Managua. The Nicaraguan constitutional court is also currently reviewing a challenge to the project by indigenous and creole groups, who say their autonomy is being violated. Western scholars have dismissed the project as Beijing’s back-door plan to make Nicaragua, an ally of Taiwan, switch allegiance to the mainland.

Wang Jing, the chairman of HKND, the Hong Kong-based company tasked with planning, building and operating the canal, sat down with the South China Morning Post in his office overseeing Victoria Harbour on Sunday to clarify the purpose of the high-profile delegation and the progress in the construction project.

What is the significance of this visit on a national level?

I think you are asking the wrong person as the two countries don’t have diplomatic relations. Only the governments of China and Nicaragua have the authority to answer your question. I am only in charge of a company, I have no authority to represent [the governments] or assess the canal’s significance for the nation.

Would you welcome the establishment of diplomatic relations?