US President Donald Trump has vowed to 'take back' the Panama Canal, alleging Chinese influence through a Hong Kong-based company operating its ports. Experts, however, deem a military takeover unlikely. The 1977 treaties with Panama guarantee the canal's neutrality and operation by the Panama Canal Authority, with concessions granted to private companies. Trump's claims, while raising concerns about Chinese control, are seen as a tactic to curb Panama's growing ties with Beijing.
over alleged undue Chinese influence may really be aimed at limiting Beijing's growing diplomatic and economic presence in Latin America, experts say.
The government has granted concessions to private company Hutchinson Ports - a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings -- to operate ports on either extreme of the 82km waterway. Trump's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has questioned whether Chinese companies could take control of the ports under orders of Beijing and"shut it down or impede our transit".
"The channel is of enormous value to the United States, both commercially and strategically," Gedan said, adding it is a potential target were China to exert influence over Hutchinson Ports, or even nationalise it. But for Euclides Tapia, professor of international relations at the University of Panama, this appears to be"a false argument" to conceal Trump's real goal:"For Panama to reduce its relations with China to a minimum".Since then, China's footprint has expanded greatly in Panama as in the rest of Latin America, mainly through infrastructure projects.
Nothing"mentions, let alone authorises, the United States recovering or reclaiming the canal", said Julio Yao, a former government policy advisor who was part of the Panamanian team that negotiated the treaties.
PANAMA CANAL CHINA UNITED STATES MILITARY INTERVENTION POLITICAL TENSIONS
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