US will not let China disrupt Panama Canal: Pentagon chief

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at Port of Rodman in West Panama. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Hegseth is the second senior US official to visit Panama since President Donald Trump took office in January

PANAMA CITY: The United States will not allow China to jeopardize the operations of the Panama Canal, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned during a visit to the Central American nation on Tuesday April 8 , 2025 .

Hegseth is the second senior US official to visit Panama since President Donald Trump took office in January vowing to “take back” the US-built canal to counter what he sees as China’s disproportionate influence over the waterway.

“Today, the Panama Canal faces ongoing threats,” Hegseth said in a speech at a police station located at the entry to the shipping route.

“The United States of America will not allow communist China or any other country to threaten the canal’s operation or integrity,” he added.

A Hong Kong company called Panama Ports operates two ports at either end of the canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, through which five percent of all global shipping passes.

‘Wonder of the world’
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The Trump administration has put immense pressure on Panama to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, which Washington sees as a threat to US national security.

“I want to be very clear. China did not build this canal. China does not operate this canal. And China will not weaponize this canal,” Hegseth said, calling it a “wonder of the world.”

Speaking alongside Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino, Hegseth said the US and Panama together would “take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence” and keep it open to all nations, using the “deterrent power of the strongest, most effective and most lethal fighting force in the world.”

He claimed that China’s control of critical infrastructure in the canal area gave Beijing the power to conduct spying activities across Panama, making Panama and the United States “less secure, less prosperous and less sovereign.”

The Chinese Embassy in Panama issued a statement refuting Hegseth’s claim that Beijing interferes in the operations of the canal. “China has never taken part in the management or operation of the Panama Canal, nor has it interfered in issues” concerning the waterway, the statement said, calling on Washington to halt “blackmail” and “plundering” of Panama and other countries of the region.

It labeled Hegseth’s comments “not at all responsible or founded” and said the United States “has orchestrated a sensationalist campaign based on the ‘China threat theory’ so as to undermine cooperation between China and Panama.

“China has always respected Panama’s sovereignty with regard to the canal,” the embassy said.

Shortly after that visit Panama announced it was pulling out of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s landmark global infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative.

( Source : AFP )