“We’re taking the Panama Canal back,” the new US president, Donald Trump, said during his inauguration speech.
“China is operating the Panama Canal, we didn’t give it to China, ,,,, and we’re taking it back.” He added
China does not actually control or administer the Canal, but in 2017 Panama began a series of trade negotiations with Hong Kong’s Hutchison Ports, which now controls two of the five ports along the Canal. Thanks to substantial investments in the country’s infrastructure and commercial areas, Beijing is now an important economic partner for Panama.
On a number of previous occasions, the then US president-elect had already criticized Panama’s disproportionate closeness to China, accusing the Canal Authority of applying excessive tariffs to US ships transiting through the Canal.
The President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, had already had the opportunity to reply to Trump, stating that the Canal is not under Chinese control and that every square metre of it belongs to Panama
As is well known, for a long time Panama was an independent republic under the protection of the USA. The Roosevelt administration managed to lease an area for the Canal and permission to start work on it in 1907, completing it in 1914.
In 1999, the Canal was returned to the Central American country.
Translation by Giles Foster