China issues response after Hegseth calls it a threat to Panama Canal
The defence secretary said the US will not allow China or any other country to threaten the canal’s operation.
China has issued a fiery response after US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said it poses an ongoing threat to the Panama Canal.
Speaking at a ribbon cutting for a new US-financed dock at the Vasco Nunez de Balboa Naval Base after a meeting with Panama President Jose Raul Mulino, Mr Hegseth said the US will not allow China or any other country to threaten the canal’s operation.
His remarks triggered the response from the Chinese government, which said: “Who represents the real threat to the Canal? People will make their own judgement.”
Mr Hegseth said: “The United States and Panama have done more in recent weeks to strengthen our defence and security cooperation than we have in decades.
“China-based companies continue to control critical infrastructure in the canal area. “That gives China the potential to conduct surveillance activities across Panama. This makes Panama and the United States less secure, less prosperous and less sovereign. And as president Donald Trump has pointed out, that situation is not acceptable.”
Mr Hegseth met with Mr Mulino for two hours on Tuesday morning before heading to the naval base that previously had been the US Rodman Naval Station.
On the way, he posted a photo on X of the two men laughing and said it was an honour speaking with Mr Mulino.
“You and your country’s hard work is making a difference. Increased security cooperation will make both our nations safer, stronger and more prosperous,” he wrote.
The visit comes amid tensions over Mr Trump’s repeated assertions that the US is being overcharged to use the Panama Canal and that China has influence over its operations — allegations Panama has denied.
Shortly after the meeting, the Chinese Embassy in Panama posted a statement on X, saying the US has used “blackmail” to further its own interests and that who Panama carries out business with is a “sovereign decision of Panama… and something the US doesn’t have the right to interfere in”.
The statement said: “The US has carried out a sensationalistic campaign about the ‘theoretical Chinese threat’ in an attempt to sabotage Chinese-Panamanian cooperation, which is all just rooted in the United State’s own geopolitical interests.”
After Mr Hegseth and Mr Mulino spoke by phone in February, the US State Department said an agreement had been reached to not charge US warships to pass through the canal. Mr Mulino publicly denied there was any such deal.
Mr Trump has gone so far as to suggest the US should not have turned the canal over to Panama and that maybe that it should take the canal back.
The China concern was provoked by the Hong Kong consortium holding a 25-year lease on ports at either end of the canal.
The Panamanian government announced that lease was being audited and late on Monday concluded that there were irregularities.
The Hong Kong consortium has already announced that CK Hutchison would be selling its controlling stake in the ports to a consortium including BlackRock Inc, effectively putting the ports under American control once the sale is complete.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Mr Mulino during a visit in February that Mr Trump believes China’s presence in the canal area may violate a treaty that led the US to turn the waterway over to Panama in 1999. That treaty calls for the permanent neutrality of the American-built canal.
Mr Mulino has denied that China has any influence in the operations of the canal.
The US built the canal in the early 1900s as it looked for ways to facilitate the transit of commercial and military vessels between its coasts. Washington relinquished control of the waterway to Panama on December 31 1999, under a treaty signed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter.
“I want to be very clear, China did not build this canal,” Mr Hegseth said on Tuesday. “China does not operate this canal and China will not weaponise this canal.
“Together with Panama in the lead, we will keep the canal secure and available for all nations through the deterrent power of the strongest, most effective and most lethal fighting force in the world.”
