ATHENS — The Trump administration has a new European target in its crosshairs: China’s state ownership of Piraeus port in Greece.

“It is unfortunate, but I think there’s ways around it, that something could be worked out, whether you pursue a path of enhancing output in other areas or perhaps that Piraeus could be for sale,” the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, said in an interview with local outlet Antenna TV.

China invested heavily in debt-ridden Greece during the country’s lengthy economic crisis, with the goal of making it a hub for Chinese exports. Athens actively courted Beijing as companies from other Western countries turned away from Greece, spooked by its financial woes and infamous bureaucracy.

Cosco, China’s state-owned shipping company, secured a majority stake in Greece’s largest port of Piraeus in 2016, making it a key part — the so-called dragon’s head — of its global infrastructure project, known as the Belt and Road Initiative.

Guilfoyle, a former TV host on US broadcaster Fox, suggested that Beijing’s current influence could potentially be balanced by increased American investment in other infrastructure projects.

“I think it’s very important to have American infrastructure here to help support the region. To perhaps, in fact, enhance output from other ports and areas to balance against the Chinese influence with the port of Piraeus,” she said.

Greece sold Piraeus port under pressure from the country’s European creditors, and Cosco was the only company to submit an offer.

Guilfoyle added that Washington sees Greece as a rising energy hub crucial to securing energy independence “to push back against Russian and Chinese interests.”