{"id":215852,"date":"2025-01-15T14:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T14:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/15\/in-pursuing-canal-trump-could-push-panama-closer-to-china\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T14:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T14:09:10","slug":"in-pursuing-canal-trump-could-push-panama-closer-to-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/15\/in-pursuing-canal-trump-could-push-panama-closer-to-china\/","title":{"rendered":"In Pursuing Canal, Trump Could Push Panama Closer to China"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/15\/multimedia\/15panama-china01-photo-pmcz\/15panama-china01-photo-pmcz-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"In Pursuing Canal, Trump Could Push Panama Closer to China\" title=\"In Pursuing Canal, Trump Could Push Panama Closer to China\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As Panama\u2019s president laid a wreath to honor those who died protesting the American occupation 60 years ago, the ceremony attendees were resolute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The commemoration this month came just days <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/07\/us\/politics\/trump-panama-canal-greenland.html\" title=\"\">after President-elect Donald J. Trump<\/a> falsely claimed China was controlling the Panama Canal and suggested he could use military force to retake the waterway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The threat rippled through a country still haunted by the events of 1964, when students trying to plant the Panamanian flag in the U.S.-occupied canal zone were met with deadly force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMy brother did not die for nothing,\u201d said Carlos E. Bonilla Cac\u00f3, whose brother was killed in the demonstrations that sparked the movement leading Panamanians to regain sovereignty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The country\u2019s leader agreed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the foothill near the Panama Canal Authority\u2019s office, President Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Mulino was firm. \u201cThe canal is and will continue to be Panamanian,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The statement directly challenged Mr. Trump, who some analysts say is only posturing to press Panama to lower fees for American goods traversing the canal, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/23\/us\/politics\/trump-greenland-panama-canal.html\" title=\"\">a subject he has recently railed against.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But former American officials warn that he may alienate Panama at a time when China is trying to woo the country as an ally and expand its influence in Latin America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cTrump\u2019s saber rattling could dampen the Panamanian government\u2019s desire to broaden the relationship with the U.S. economically\u201d said Ramon Escobar, who until September served on the National Security Council and is currently the managing director at Actum, a global consultancy firm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He \u201cmay end up pushing them away at a time when there is a real opportunity to get Panama back into our orbit,\u201d Mr. Escobar said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The canal was constructed by the United States in the early 20th century, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/08\/world\/americas\/trump-panama-canal.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\">but Panama took back full control in 1999<\/a> and has since operated the waterway through the Panama Canal Authority.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Today, Panama holds special strategic significance for China because of the canal, but Beijing has been working to expand its influence in Latin America, and among developing countries more broadly. It has portrayed itself as an alternative to what it calls American hegemony and bullying, casting itself as a more sympathetic, fellow developing country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And with significant investments in port construction worldwide, China is positioning itself to influence global commerce and monitor international activities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Specifically, U.S. officials have grown increasingly concerned about two seaports at each end of the Panama Canal, which have been operated for decades by CK Hutchison Holdings, a company based in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While CK Hutchison is a publicly listed conglomerate whose largest owner is a Hong Kong billionaire family, Beijing could still use its national security laws to force the company to assist in intelligence-gathering or military operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Panamanian officials argue, however, that China doesn\u2019t pose a risk. The canal is open to the public, they say, and any Chinese interference would be visibly obvious.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAnyone can use a satellite to see what is going in and out of the port,\u201d Ilya Espino de Marotta, the deputy administrator of the Panama Canal, said in an interview last week. \u201cThe canal runs through the country, along national roads and is visible to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During his first administration, Mr. Trump did bring up the Panama Canal internally, indicating that he sees the waterway as unfinished business, said John Feeley, who served as U.S. ambassador to Panama from 2015 until 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In June 2017, Mr. Trump met with the Panamanian president at the time, Juan Carlos Varela, and complained that the U.S. Navy was paying too much to traverse the canal \u2014 about $1 million annually, Mr. Feeley said. (That cost is so minuscule it would be akin to a rounding error in the Pentagon\u2019s budget, analysts say.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Mr. Trump never brought up China\u2019s presence or supposed influence over the canal even though just weeks previously Panama had broken off relations with Taiwan and aligned with Beijing, said Mr. Feeley, who attended the White House meeting between the leaders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The former ambassador said he tried to get the White House to focus on China\u2019s rising influence in Panama, but the issue never grew to a level of serious alarm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the time, China was promising to invest in big-ticket infrastructure items in Panama, including a canal bridge, as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Through the initiative Beijing has increased its influence globally by investing in seaports, roads and trains from <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/08\/07\/world\/africa\/kenya-election-train.html\" title=\"\">Kenya<\/a> to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/25\/world\/asia\/china-sri-lanka-port.html\" title=\"\">Sri Lanka<\/a> and, most recently, Latin America. Critics say Beijing uses the program to saddle foreign governments with failing projects or unsustainable debt in order to wield China\u2019s leverage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Feeley said he tried to get American companies to bid on such projects to counter China. But the U.S. Embassy in Panama City never got the White House\u2019s backing to persuade American companies to bid, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s not that we are losing to China in Latin America; in most cases we aren\u2019t even showing up to the commercial battlefield,\u201d Mr. Feeley said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Latin American governments like Panama\u2019s have complained that when they put out bids for expensive infrastructure projects, the United States is often absent, forcing them to rely on others from Europe to China to get the work done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe U.S. isn\u2019t bidding on big infrastructure projects here, but China is,\u201d said Giulia de Sanctis, the president of the Panamanian Association of Business Executives. \u201cAre we supposed to tell them now: \u2018It\u2019s time to get out of Panama; Trump doesn\u2019t like you.\u2019 Would anyone feel safe investing here then?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Panama Canal Authority has said that while the United States built the canal for military purposes, the Panamanians developed it into a major hub of global trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Once the U.S. military handed it over, the authority invested more than $5 billion to widen the waterway and accommodate the giant cargo ships that travel from the United States to East Asia, its most popular route.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for our investment, the canal would be irrelevant on the scale of global trade,\u201d said Ms. Espino de Marotta.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOur neutrality is our greatest business asset, and it enables us to be a route for global commerce,\u201d she said. At the Atlantic entrance of the canal, three ports are separately operated by companies based in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThese ports have been managed by Hong Kong since 1997, throughout Trump\u2019s first administration,\u201d she added. \u201cTrump never said a thing about it then, so why now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some Panamanians are reluctant to allow China to invest further in the country. Although Mr. Varela shifted Panama\u2019s diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan and entered into several business agreements with Beijing, subsequent governments have sought to scale back these commitments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ram\u00f3n Mart\u00ednez, who served as the minister of commerce after Mr. Varela stepped down, expressed his discomfort with the political and economic agreements made by the earlier administration with China. He said he halted a free-trade agreement with China that was under negotiation. The bridge over the canal that China pledged to build was also paused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Mart\u00ednez emphasized that for Panama, its most important ally will always be the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last week, hundreds of tourists gathered on a terrace at the Miraflores Visitors Center, giving them a bird\u2019s-eye view of the Panama Canal. They waved as a towering cruise ship squeezed its way through the canal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-11\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAt first it made me laugh, the insanity of it all,\u201d said Jacqueline Williams of Mr. Trump\u2019s threats against Panama as she waved to a passing cruise ship. The 67-year-old nonprofit educator was visiting the canal from New York City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBut then you think: This is a guy who idolizes Putin,\u201d she said, referring to the Russian president. \u201cTrump said on the campaign trail he wanted to restore peace to the world, but now he is threatening military expansionism.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-12\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Alex E. Hern\u00e1ndez contributed reporting from Panama City, <!-- -->Vivian Wang<!-- --> from Beijing and <!-- -->Emiliano Rodr\u00edguez Mega<!-- --> from Mexico City.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/15\/world\/americas\/panama-canal-trump-china.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Panama\u2019s president laid a wreath to honor those who died protesting the American occupation 60 years ago, the ceremony attendees were resolute. The commemoration this month came just days after President-elect Donald J. Trump falsely claimed China was controlling the Panama Canal and suggested he could use military force to retake the waterway. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/15\/multimedia\/15panama-china01-photo-pmcz\/15panama-china01-photo-pmcz-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11921,165602,168,4587,137233,163575,170285,3096,164053,165600,11920,165601,23916,137131,88818,170284,55716,4759,52,1021,128437,170269],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215852"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215854,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215852\/revisions\/215854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}