US politicians’ hardline stance towards foreign port operators can only undermine security at a time when the country is already lagging behind on improving safety at its docks, according to the head of the world’s largest container port operator.

“They are effectively saying ‘We don’t want you to be here, we don’t trust you’,” John Meredith, group managing director of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, said in an interview with the FT.