China remained publicly noncommittal about extending new financial support to Ukraine’s embattled President Viktor Yanukovych during his visit this week to Beijing. Still, the former Soviet country won a commitment from a more unusual source: a Chinese businessman most famous for wanting to build a rival to the Panama Canal.
Wang Jing, who this year unveiled plans to build a canal in Central America’s Nicaragua, said he signed a deal recently with a Ukrainian company spearhead private development plans there starting with a $3 billion deep-water port.
China is already Ukraine’s biggest trading partner in Asia, and the two nations have cited growing ties from agriculture to fisheries and military equipment. The country’s strategic location on the Black Sea appears to particularly interest Beijing, as ports in the former Soviet state have figured into much of the talk about investment potential.