IN HIS first international trip as the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio sent a strong warning message to Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino. Consistent with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign message, Rubio said that “absent immediate changes” to reduce the “China influence” over the Panama Canal, Washington would be required to “take measures necessary.”

In Trump’s inauguration speech two weeks earlier, China’s only mention was linked to the Panama Canal. After declaring that he would rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” Trump lamented how the Panama Canal had been “foolishly given to the country of Panama” and claimed that “above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.” 

Trump’s rhetoric fits neatly into his vocal expansionist and imperialist ambitions, from annexing Greenland and Canada to “taking back” the Panama Canal, which itself was a product of US interventionism and imperialist interest in the region.

Panama’s fight for sovereignty

Panamanian independence from Colombia in 1903 was supported by the United States insofar it its future interests were guaranteed. Fifteen days later, the Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty was signed, giving the United States exclusive rights to build a canal across Panama and to the Canal Zone “in perpetuity.”

Panamanian sovereignty over the Canal Zone became the centre of decades of struggle, coming to a head in January 1964, when students attempted to raise a Panamanian flag there in protest against US imperialism. They were met with brutal repression, and several students were wounded and killed. It wasn’t until the leadership of Omar Torrijo that Panama was finally able to gain its control over the Canal Zone, solidified in the Torrijos-Carter treaties in 1977. As an important victory for Panama’s national sovereignty, the treaties stated that the US would relinquish control of the area in 1979, with the transference of control completed by 1999 — now once again being threatened again by the provocations of Trump’s administration.

China in the US’s backyard?

Marco Rubio visited Panama as part of a five-nation trip through Central America, which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Known for his hawkish stance on China, former Florida senator Rubio has expressed concerns about China’s influence over the canal, warning of its potential to become a “choke point” in times of conflict and a “direct threat to US national security.” As an outcome of this visit, Panama announced it would not renew its involvement in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Panama was the first Latin American country to join the BRI, though a number of investment projects were suspended or cancelled in 2019, with Panama’s election of Laurentino Cortizo as president. China’s involvement with the Panama Canal began in earnest in 2016, when state-owned Cosco Shipping sent its first ship through the canal’s $5 billion expansion, financed and built over nine years. In the same year, China’s Landbridge Group purchased Panama’s largest Atlantic port on Margarita Island for $900 million. By 2018, Chinese companies such as China Harbour Engineering Company and China Communications Construction Company had secured a $1.4 billion contract to build a fourth bridge over the canal. 

During this period, after breaking off diplomatic relations with Taiwan (Republic of China) in June 2017, Panama established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Today, seven of the remaining 11 UN member states that have ties with Taiwan are in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Globally, no doubt China has been a major player in maritime trade. Over the last decade, under the banner of the “Maritime Silk Road,” China has invested in 129 ports across dozens of countries, mostly in the global South. However, only 17 of these ports are majority-owned by Chinese entities — none of them being in Panama. 

While Chinese companies manage significant shipping-related infrastructure in Panama, there is no evidence that the Chinese government controls the canal. Since 2018, Hutchison Ports Holdings, the Hong Kong-based private conglomerate, has managed the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, with a concession renewed in 2021 after passing two rounds of audits — now subject to another one since Trump’s allegations.

Despite Trump’s claims of Chinese control and unfair taxation of US shipments, the United States is still the primary user of the canal. In 2023, about 70 per cent of the ships using the canal were linked to US trade. Over 208 million long tons of cargo were either destined for or originated from the US, with China trailing behind at 64 million tons, followed by Japan with 41 million tons and South Korea and Chile tied at 27 million tons. Nonetheless, Trump’s administration has floated extreme measures, such as outright purchasing the canal or forcibly taking control of it, which the US has no legal grounds to do so.

The Panamanian government has rejected Trump’s claims unequivocally. President Jose Raul Mulino stated: “There’s no possibility of opening any kind of conversation around [transferring canal ownership].”

Panama’s trade unions and social movements have also mobilised to defend their sovereignty. On Trump’s inauguration day, demonstrators denounced his expansionist threats as part of a broader protest in Panama City against changes to the public pension system. Saul Mendez, leader of SUNTRACS, stated: “Trump tries to erase with a single whim what was conquered with the lives of patriots. The Canal is Panamanian, and its sovereignty belongs to the Panamanian people.” Similar demonstrations were held prior and during Rubio’s visit.

China’s support for Panama’s sovereignty: past and present

Reaffirming China’s support for Panama’s sovereignty, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning highlighted the canal as “a great creation of the people of Panama” and pledged continued respect for its neutrality. Mao Ning, as well as Chinese ambassador to Panama Xu Xueyuan after Rubio’s visit, also referred to the solidarity protests in 1964, when millions of Chinese people demonstrated to denounce the massacre of protesters and to defend Panama’s sovereignty. 

In his solidarity declaration that was published as a pamphlet, Chairman Mao Zedong stated: “The heroic struggle now being waged by the people of Panama against US aggression and in defence of their national sovereignty is a great and patriotic struggle. The Chinese people stand firmly on the side of the Panamanian people and fully support their just action in opposing the US aggressors and seeking to regain sovereignty over the Panama Canal Zone. US imperialism is the most ferocious enemy of the people of the world.”

Sixty one years later, the Panama Canal, once a symbol of US imperial dominance, has reemerged once again as an object of the US’s imperialist ambitions, in its reassertion of the Monroe Doctrine. As China deepens its ties with Latin America, replacing the US as South America’s top trading partner, the United States has issued more threats of sanctions and annexations, and, at times, offered underwhelming responses.

Through initiatives such as the BRI, which includes participation of 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries now, China has become one of the largest source of foreign direct investment and infrastructure lending in the region. One notable example is the $3.5bn Chancay Port in Peru, built by Chinese companies and with Chinese investment, which significantly reduces shipping time between Asia and Latin America from 35 days to just 23, cutting a fifth of the costs.

In stark contrast, on the heels of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Peru prior to the G20 summit in Brazil, former US secretary of state Antony Blinken announced the “donation” of passenger trains as Biden administration’s attempt to “advance the United States-Peru partnership.” Much less a “donation,” California’s commuter rail line Caltrain had sold its 40-year-old diesel trains to Lima for $6.32 million as it modernised its own fleet.

Six decades ago, Mao Zedong’s words resonated across China, with up to 20 million Chinese citizens organising solidarity protests from Shenyang in the north-east to Guangzhou in the south. Slogans such as “Firm support for the struggle of the Panamanian people to recover the Panama Canal” and “Panama yes, Yankees no!” filled the streets and airwaves. These demands still resonate today as the people of Panama firmly defend their sovereignty in the face of the US’s new wave of aggressions in the region.

Tings Chak is the art director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, co-editor of Wenhua Zongheng: A Journal of Contemporary Chinese Thought, and a PhD candidate at Tsinghua University in Beijing. This article is republished from peoplesdispatch.org.