“President Trump’s reasons for wanting control of the Panama Canal can be found at either end of the interoceanic waterway,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Every day, dozens of cargo ships pass by blue cranes at a port near the Pacific Ocean entrance, the towering skyline of Panama City visible across the horizon. About eight hours later, they drift past another terminal stacked with containers as they exit into the Atlantic.”
“These facilities are run by a giant Hong Kong port operator, Hutchison Whampoa. And that is the crux of the problem for the Trump administration, which sees the Chinese infrastructure that has been built up around the canal in the past three decades as a national-security threat.”
“There are other China-backed projects in Panama that include a canal bridge, a new subway line, a cruise-ship terminal, a convention center and a wind-energy farm. Trump said it all amounts to a violation of the purpose and spirit of U.S.-Panama treaties that required the canal to remain neutral when Washington turned over the American-built canal to Panama in 1999.”
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