The United States will not allow China to “threaten” the operations of the Panama Canal, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned adding that his country does “not seek war with China” but will act to deter Chinese “threats” in the Americas.
“We do not seek war with China...But together, we must prevent war by robustly and vigorously deterring China's threats in this hemisphere,” Hegseth said on the second day of his visit to Panama, whose canal is at the center of a row between China and the United States.
“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.
US and Chinese firms fight for business on the waterway after President Donald Trump threatened to seize it.
His administration has vowed to “take back” control of the interoceanic waterway that the United States funded, built and controlled until 1999.
A Hong Kong company operates two ports at either end of the canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, through which five percent of all global shipping passes.
“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 after a meeting with President Jose Raul Mulino, Hegseth added that 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... 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 the Central American nation and the United States “less secure, less prosperous and less sovereign.”
Shortly after the meeting, the Chinese Embassy in Panama issued a statement refuting Hegseth's claim, labeling it as “not at all responsible or founded.”
“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 added that 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.
In March, CK Hutchison announced an agreement to sell 43 ports in 23 countries -- including its two on the canal -- to a group led by giant US asset manager BlackRock for $19 billion in cash.
A furious Beijing has since announced an antitrust review of the deal, which likely prevented the parties from signing an agreement on April 2 as had been planned.
Hegseth's visit to Panama comes two months after that of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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.
