In his inaugural address on Monday, January 20, the new president of the United States, Donald Trump, did not, in the end, attack China as directly and harshly as Beijing had feared. Instead, he focused on a small country that has historically been very close to the US: Panama. He accused it of overcharging American ships transiting through its famous canal and claimed that China manages operations there. "We didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama and we're taking it back," he said. This was a reference to the two port terminals at the entrance to the canal, Balboa, on the Pacific Ocean side, and Cristobal, on the Atlantic Ocean side, which, since 1996, have been entrusted to a Hong Kong-based group, CK Hutchison, created by wealthy 96-year-old businessman Li Ka-shing, which manages 53 port terminals worldwide.
Panama's president, José Raul Mulino, immediately rejected Trump's statement "in its entirety" and complained to the United Nations that the new US president was "undermining our right, total sovereignty and ownership of our Canal." However, Panama has begun an audit of the terminals and has published images of its inspectors getting out of a minibus at Hutchison's local headquarters. This operation could be intended to show that Panama is in complete control but also that the authorities are interested in how the contract was renewed in 2023 under the previous government.
The American president may have been using his usual bombastic rhetoric, but his statement nevertheless illustrated the growing frustration in Washington with changes in Panama's stance over the past decade. In 1903, the US had helped the Panamanians, who were, at the time, part of Colombia, to become independent. In 1904, the US began construction on the canal after a failed French attempt. Washington did not transfer control of the canal to Panama until 1999 in exchange for a commitment to keep the waterway, a strategic point for global trade, permanently neutral.
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