China’s Global Times today warned that President-elect Donald Trump’s Dec. 21 assertion—that because the Panama Canal is “vital” to the United States, if Panama does not do as it says, the U.S. could reclaim the Canal—is a threat to more than Panama. “If the logic is that anyone who considers a canal vital can lay claim to it, what would be the point of international law, sovereignty, and territorial integrity in such a world? … Beneath this rhetoric lies the U.S.’ deeper desire to control crucial global shipping routes, chokepoints, and supply chains.”
There is a better way, Global Times suggests. If the United States wants to stop lamenting about “its waning influence in Latin America”—the U.S. Southern Command has been loudly moaning over this reality, for example, EIR notes—the U.S. should give up its “arrogance … Latin America is not U.S.’ territory or backyard, nor is it U.S.’ `Latin America.’ It is a region of sovereign countries, with the right to safeguard their own sovereignty, seek development and engage in independent cooperation with any other country. Ultimately, what Panama and other Latin American countries seek is sovereignty, respect, and a more just and equitable international order.”
Furthermore, Global Times notes, while treating the region as its “backyard,” the U.S. has been “neglecting the development needs of regional countries for far too long.” The Chinese daily points to the article published Dec. 16 in Foreign Policy, with the provocative headline, “What China Got Right in Latin America”. Global Times accurately sums up the argument of that blunt article by two Chatham House experts: “China has brought real resources to address development opportunities that have long been lacking in the region—and that the U.S. has failed to recognize for decades.”
