The United States and China traded fresh accusations on Wednesday over Panama Canal ports, with Washington accusing Beijing of violating Panama's sovereignty and China calling the Trump administration hypocritical. The dispute sharpened after the State Department and several Latin American governments issued a joint statement backing Panama.
The State Department on Tuesday said China’s actions were a blatant attempt to politicize maritime trade, and it released the statement with Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago saying they stood in solidarity with Panama. That same night, Marco Rubio wrote that the sovereignty of our hemisphere is non-negotiable, a line that underscored how quickly a port dispute has become a wider regional fight.
The flare-up began in early April after Rubio accused China of bullying by detaining or holding up dozens of Panama-flagged ships for a short period of time. China denied the allegation. The pressure around the canal has already been building for months: earlier this year, Panama seized control of two critical ports on the canal from a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company, and last year Donald Trump accused Beijing of running the international waterway.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian dismissed the U.S. and allied statements on Wednesday as completely unfounded and said they distorted reality. He also turned the accusation back on Washington, saying the United States occupied the Panama Canal for a long time, invaded Panama with its military and trampled on its sovereignty and dignity. Lin said the United States was the side that had politicized and securitized the issue of ports.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino tried to keep the dispute from widening. On Wednesday, he said he appreciated the solidarity of friendly countries over the Panamanian-flagged vessels in Chinese ports and added that Panama did not wish to engage in controversy because it values respectful relations with all nations. His comments reflected the narrow space Panama is trying to hold between two powers that have turned the canal into a symbol of influence far beyond the waterway itself.
The canal has become central to a broader rivalry between the United States and China in Latin America, where Washington has long sought to offset Beijing’s growing presence. For now, the dispute is less about one shipment or one port than about who gets to define neutrality in a region where both sides are now accusing the other of turning commerce into leverage.