If globalization had a nervous system, it would be made of ports, canals and contracts. When a major power starts pricking those nerves for geopolitical convenience, the pain travels far beyond the immediate target. That is exactly what we are witnessing today in Panama and northern Australia, where Washington’s pressure politics are colliding head-on with international law, national sovereignty and the basic rules of global business.

During a recent visit, United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth baselessly declared that “China’s control of critical infrastructure” around the canal “threatens” the “sovereignty” and “security” of Panama and the US — and vowed that the US would “take back” the canal from China. That statement was striking not just for its hostility, but for its ignorance and historical amnesia.

China does not control the Panama Canal. Panama does. What a Chinese firm controls — legally — is the operation of two commercial ports, Balboa and Cristobal, at either end of the canal. The Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison has managed them since 1997, after approval by Panama’s Congress. The contract was renewed in 2021 through lawful procedures and extended to 2047. Panama’s own maritime authority later confirmed the company’s full compliance after an audit.

That is not........

© The Frontier Post (Editorial)