Two ports, one at either end of the Panama canal, have become a battlefront in the power struggle between China and America. Both countries view them as vital to their trading and security interests. By July 27th talks were supposed to wrap up on the terms of a $23bn deal that would see ownership of their terminals, as well as those in 41 other ports in 22 other countries around the world, handed from CK Hutchison (CKH), a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, to two Western firms: BlackRock, an American investment company, and MSC, a Swiss-Italian shipping giant. But China has stuck its oar in.