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Progress on the Panama Canal

Steve Fast
@SteveFast
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After some clear threats from Trump to Panama due to its having allowed Chinese influence to threaten the security of the Panama Canal, real changes have been made. Trump said that we foolishly gave the canal to Panama, not to China, and that we would take it back unless China was ousted.

The Hong Kong company C. K. Hutchison Port Holdings has managed the Cristobal and Balboa ports at each end of the Canal since 1997, and it recently signed a 25-year extension. Panama had also joined the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in which China loaned money to countries to build infrastructure but often trapped them with debt payments and Chinese surveillance.

Sec. State Rubio traveled to Panama in early February to repeat Trump's threats in person. On 6 February, Panama pulled out of BRI, giving China the required 90-day notice, despite China urging Panama to ignore Trump's threats. Panama eliminated the fees for US naval vessels to transit the Canal.

Panama also started an audit of C. K. Hutchison's activities in China and requested its Supreme Court to declare the extension unconstitutional. Meanwhile, Black Rock organized a $23 billion buyout of Hutchison's interest in the port management contract. Black Rock is a money manager, not a port operator, so the Italian port operator Terminal Infrastructure, Ltd. is included in the buyout consortium. TIL is owned by the Italian Aponte family, which also owns the global shipping giant MSC. Hutchison's emerging legal problems in Panama were an incentive to divest.

America has grumbled about Chinese influence over the Panama Canal for more than two decades. But Trump kicked the Chinese out and brought management of the ports back under American control just four months after he was elected.

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Discussion (24)

  • AMD Texas@DarinJohnson
    ReplyingtoSubcomandante America

    Subcomandante America (View Comment):

    Maybe. How do we know all this?

    Maybe I should check to see if Sal Mercogliano has a recent update. He’s pretty good about staying on top of issues on this general topic.

    Or is that where you got your information?

    Well, the New York times, AP, and Washington Post have had the story up in the last few hours. I figured you might need a conglomeration of the mainstream media to believe that this is happening. You could also do a Google search yourself and find it in about 5 seconds.,

  • Subcomandante America@TheReticulator
    ReplyingtoAMD Texas

    Subcomandante America (View Comment):

    Maybe. How do we know all this?

    Maybe I should check to see if Sal Mercogliano has a recent update. He’s pretty good about staying on top of issues on this general topic.

    Or is that where you got your information?

    AMD Texas (View Comment):

    Well, the New York times, AP, and Washington Post have had the story up in the last few hours. I figured you might need a conglomeration of the mainstream media to believe that this is happening. You could also do a Google search yourself and find it in about 5 seconds.,

    Thank you for answering the question. That's all I needed to know.

  • Percival@Percival

    The Panama Canal is only part of what is going on here.

    80% of the ship-to-shore (STS) cranes for loading/unloading ships in US ports are manufactured by Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC), a Chinese company. The port at Guam is one of these ports.

    ZPMC dominates the global market share of STS cranes, adding to the PRC’s broader maritime infrastructure dominance and creating cybersecurity vulnerabilities and national security risks for the US and its allies, the report shows.

    Not only is ZPMC wholly owned by a Chinese company that the Department of Defense has named a “Communist Chinese Military Company” and which is involved in militarizing the South China Sea, but the company is producing and assembling equipment and technology in China and is delivering it upon completion.

    US ports have multimillion dollar contracts with ZPMC that do not prohibit or limit unauthorized modifications or access to equipment and technology and do not specifically bar the vendor from “installing backdoors into equipment or modifying technology”, the report shows.

    I can't think of any reason why these critical pieces of equipment should be allowed to be ultimately under the control of the CCP.

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