Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Panama’s government has launched an audit of the Hong Kong company that controls ports at either end of its canal.
The review of Hutchison Ports appears to be a response to Trump’s comments that China, which is closely aligned with Hong Kong, is a national security threat and “operating” the canal, which was transferred to Panama by the US in 1977.
Since Panama joined the Belt and Road Initiative in 2017, several Chinese-backed projects have sprung up across the country. But trade and investment in the canal is still dominated by the US, while China accounts for less than 22 per cent of transiting cargo.
The treaty that handed back the canal insists on its “permanent neutrality”. Joe Reeder, a former US Army official on the Panama Canal advisory board, tells the WSJ that “no one who knows anything about military technology” would see container ports as a national security threat.
