http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/08/in-odyssey-for-chinese-greece-sells-its-fabled-port-of-piraeus/

In Odyssey for Chinese, Greece Sells Its Fabled Port of Piraeus

With the sale, China’s state-owned COSCO aims to turn a once-sleepy port into the “dragon’s head” of the New Silk Road.

• By Keith Johnson
• April 8, 2016

Beijing’s ambitions to build a modern-day “Silk Road” connecting China, Central Asia, and Europe took a big step forward Friday when Chinese state-owned shipping giant COSCO finally sealed a deal to purchase the Greek Port of Piraeus, south of Athens.
For COSCO and for Beijing, it’s a billion-dollar conclusion to a seven-year saga. COSCO, formally known as the China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co., took over operations at one part of the Port of Piraeus in 2009, and had long wanted to take ownership of the whole port, one of the biggest in the Mediterranean. But the port’s privatization was put on hold for a year because Greece’s left-wing leadership bitterly opposed earlier plans to do so by the previous government. On Friday, COSCO agreed to acquire control of the port and to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more to continue upgrading and modernizing Piraeus.http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/08/in-odyssey-for-chinese-greece-sells-its-fabled-port-of-piraeus/