Just because the government didn't need to put their thumb on the scale, yet, doesn't mean they would let a foreign entity take the lead in as critical a piece

Just because the government didn't need to put their thumb on the scale, yet, doesn't mean they would let a foreign entity take the lead in as critical a piece of infrastructure as transportation. I strongly suspect it was a "heads we win, tails you lose" situation that just came up heads. But that doesn't mean the outcome was ever in question.