Taipiei, Taiwan – Chinese Panama Canal Ports Control is an unacceptable threat to American security, said Pete Hegseth, defense secretary, during a visit to the Nation of Central America, highlighting American efforts to strengthen its influence in the Western hemisphere.
The Panama Canal has become a focal point of geopolitical tension, as China’s involvement in its ports raises American concerns about control and influence in a key global trade route.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that the United States was surfing to use the Panama Canal and that China has an influence on its operations.
Speaking during a ribbon cup for a new quay funded by the United States at the Naval base of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa after a meeting with the president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, Hegseth said that the United States would not authorize China or any other country to threaten the channel operations.
“To this end, the United States and Panama have done more in recent weeks to strengthen our defense and security cooperation than for decades,” he said.
Chinese companies said HegSeth, continue to control critical infrastructure in the canal area.
“This gives China the potential to carry out surveillance activities through Panama.
In response to Hegseth’s remarks, the Panama Chinese Embassy criticized the US government in a press release on X.
He said that the United States has used “blackmail” to advance its own interests and that with whom Panama exercises business is a “sovereign decision of Panama … and something that the United States is not allowed to interfere”.
“The United States has carried out a sensationalist campaign on the” Chinese theoretical threat “in order to sabotage Chinese-Panamanian cooperation, which is simply rooted in the geopolitical interests of the United States,” said the embassy.
There have been growing calls in Washington to loosen the influence of Beijing resulting from the control of Chinese societies and Hong Kong on ports in Panama and elsewhere in the Western hemisphere.
China and the United States are also involved a trade battle in Tit-for-Tat, which threatens to kill the world economy. The United States now imposes a tariff of 104% on Chinese imports after a series of pricing hikes this year.
On February 3, American Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened the Panamanian chief of potential American reprisals if his country did not immediately reduce Chinese influence on the canal.
The Panamanian government said it audit the lease held by the Hong Kong consortium, which operates ports at the two ends of the canal, and late on Monday there were irregularities.
The Hong Kong Consortium, however, had already announced that CK Hutchison Holdings would sell its control participation in ports in a consortium, in particular Blackrock Inc., effectively putting ports under American control once the sale is completed.
CK Hutchison Holdings, a conglomerate based in Hong Kong, exploited the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal at the ends of the Pacific and the Atlantic of the Panama Canal through its subsidiary, Panama Ports Company, since the late 1990s.
In March 2025, CK Hutchison agreed to sell a participation of 90% in Panama Ports Company in a consortium led by the American investment company Blackrock Inc., as part of an agreement of 22.8 billion US dollars which includes control of more than 43 ports in 23 countries.
At that time, the director general of Hong Kong, John Lee, said that concerns about the agreement “deserve serious attention”, possibly making a form of legal proceedings.
“We oppose the abusive use of coercion or intimidation tactics in international, economic and commercial relations,” Lee in Hong Kong told Hong Kong. Chinese territory would manage any commercial transaction “according to law,” he said.
“The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region urges foreign governments to provide a fair and fair environment for businesses, including Hong Kong companies,” said Lee.
Edited by Mike Firn and Stephen Wright.