The new administration's immigration crackdown is likely to be among the top issues during talks, but US President Donald Trump's claim that the Central American nation had ceded control of the Panama Canal to China will also loom large.

A key focus of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Central America this week — his first trip as America’s top diplomat — will be to counter China’s growing influence in the region, the State Department’s top spokesperson said this week,

China Wednesday claimed it has never interfered in the Panama Canal amid threats of overtaking the shipping channel by the newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump, state media reported. Beijing has “not been involved in the management or operation of the Panama Canal,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in the Chinese capital.

US President Donald Trump's threat to seize the Panama Canal over alleged undue Chinese influence may really be aimed at limiting Beijing's growing diplomatic and economic presence in Latin America, experts say. Actually using force to take the ...

Republicans hoping to thwart Beijing’s influence in Latin America are urging the Panamanian government to cut ties with Chinese entities.

Panama severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan in an overt shift to bolster ties with Beijing in 2017 and joined China’s Belt and Road initiative a year later. Trump’s concerns about Beijing’s influence over the canal center on two ports, situated at ...

Nonetheless, Trump’s bet is to not have to pursue military conquest in the Athenian way. He would rather have a complacent Panama, accepting all U.S. demands. As shown by the recent Colombia-U.S. clash over deportations, Trump’s approach seems to be “cooperate or else.”

Donald Trump stokes fears about Beijing’s influence in Panama, but thousands of Chinese gave their lives to build canal and railway.

UNT Dallas political science professor outlines the implications of Trump’s threat to the Panama Canal. Trump’s suggestion that China controls the

It is now a weapon being used against us.” Trump’s skepticism about U.S. support for Ukraine and Taiwan, his eagerness to impose tariffs, and his threats to retake the Panama Canal, absorb Canada, and acquire Greenland make it clear that he envisions a return to nineteenth-century power politics and spheres of interest,

particularly investors and businessmen from Beijing. ”We are seeing the difficulties that the Panama Canal has, they have problems with the water, in terms of fluidity, the capacity for ships to ...