<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-01-23/Why-does-Trump-want-the-Panama-Canal-back–1AoImPat01G/img/edcaeb0d05554319895a90678e42ff80/edcaeb0d05554319895a90678e42ff80.png' alt='A tourist looks at a cargo ship sailing through the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Canal in Colon City, Panama, December 28, 2024. /CFP'
In his inaugural speech this week, which included a promise to bring America back to a “golden age,” U.S. President Donald Trump repeated the possibility of taking back control of the Panama Canal, one of the most critical chokepoints for world trade and maritime activities in decades.
“We’re taking it back,” vowed the 47th President, who also pledged to be “a peacemaker and a unifier” in the same speech despite having previously declined to rule out a military option.
Panamanian officials have objected to the claim, citing international law prohibiting the use of force against the sovereign territory of another state in a letter to the UN on Tuesday.
“I must completely reject the remarks made by President Donald Trump … the canal belongs and will continue to belong to Panama,” Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino said in a statement.
Mulino said the Panama Canal, which Panama currently controls, is not a concession from anyone, as Trump recently claimed, but the result of “generational struggles” by Panamanians that culminated in the Torrijos-Carter Treaty signed in 1999 in which the canal’s ownership was handed over to the Central American nation under the Clinton administration.
Threats by the new U.S. president have not been taken lightly by average Panamanians, who view the canal as a source of national pride and an important economic pillar.
“First of all, the Panama Canal belongs to the Panamanians,” said Panamanian environmentalist Milena Marin. “It (Trump’s claims) has a negative impact since these statements affect both the environment and the brand of the country.”
Trump has also repeatedly made claims that China is operating the canal despite offering no evidence. However, facts and maritime traffic data collected by Panamanian authorities help paint a clearer picture.
Two ports located on either side of the canal are under the management of Chinese companies. Collectively, they account for 39 percent of the market share, while a single port under American management accounts for 29 percent, according to the Panama Maritime Authority.
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The U.S. is also the biggest user of the canal, responsible for about 70 percent of the cargo ships that pass through its waters each year, while China is a distant second, according to the Panama Canal Authority. U.S. Navy vessels also get priority access, while commercial ships sometimes face waiting times of up to a week.
In a statement by China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, a spokesperson noted that China consistently respects Panama’s sovereignty over the Panama Canal and recognizes it as a permanently neutral international waterway.
If the Trump administration attempts to restore its long-terminated historical rights through economic coercion or even military occupation, such actions would constitute blatant hegemony and bullying, said Lyu Xiang, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
“Trump’s claims to rights or authority over the Panama Canal lack any legal basis. If implemented, these actions would undoubtedly face resistance from the Panamanian people and condemnation from countries worldwide,” Lyu said, noting that taking it by force would not be wise.
Lyu also noted the canal’s strategic significance to the Trump administration regarding U.S. energy exports, such as liquified shale gas, particularly to the Asian market, which has seen notable increases in recent years.
Today, a ship heading from New York to San Francisco can save roughly 12,552 kilometers, thanks to the Panama Canal, instead of circling South America as ships used to before it was built.
Completed in 1914 under the Wilson administration, the canal was an engineering marvel at the time due to the unmatched complexity of the project. In the eyes of historians, it also gave rise to the U.S. as a global superpower after it asserted control of the critical waterway that united maritime trade between two great oceans.
It was achieved with a series of strong-arm diplomacies directed at the young nation of Panama, which the U.S. helped liberate from Colombia a year before the canal’s construction.
This feat of engineering also took a tragic human toll, with some 27,000 workers dying from the horrific working conditions that resulted in widespread infectious diseases, including yellow fever and malaria.
Strict and often exploitative disciplinary rules imposed on the workers and enforced by a massive police force also exacerbated the matter. Ethnic segregation also occurred throughout, with white workers being paid in gold and offered better housing, while African and Caribbean workers were put on “silver rolls,” meaning they were paid with silver coins.
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(Graphics by Sun Yiwen)