China rebukes US claims of ‘threats’ to Panama Canal

China accused the United States on Monday of using “smear campaigns” as an “excuse to control” Latin America, responding to comments by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who claimed the Panama Canal faces “ongoing threats from China.”

“The remarks from the U.S. officials are filled with ideological bias and cold war mentality, and they represent outright lies and fallacies,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters during a regular press briefing in Beijing.

The diplomatic exchange highlights escalating tensions between the two global powers over influence in a region historically dominated by American interests.

Lin directly challenged U.S. regional policy by asking rhetorically, “Who views Latin America and the Caribbean as its ‘backyard,’ resurrecting and promoting a new Monroe Doctrine in Latin America? And who allows the unchecked flow of small arms and ammunition into Latin America’s zones of peace?”

Hegseth had claimed China’s military maintains “too large a presence in the Western Hemisphere” and urged Panama to secure the strategic waterway with American support rather than Chinese assistance.

The defense secretary argued that “the malign influence of the Communist Chinese” in the canal area serves neither Panamanian nor American interests.

The Chinese spokesperson countered that Beijing’s engagement with Latin American nations “has always been guided by the principles of equality and mutual benefits,” adding, “We never seek spheres of influence, nor target any third party.”

“China’s engagement with Latin American and Caribbean countries has always been guided by the principles of equality and mutual benefits,” Lin insisted.

“The repeated smear campaigns and attacks against China by the U.S. and exaggeration of the ‘China threat’ are merely an excuse to control Latin America and the Caribbean, and this kind of rhetoric is destined to fail.”

Trump’s aim to ‘take back’ Panama Canal

The dispute comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed China controls the Panama Canal and has pledged that the United States will “take back” the waterway, which he described as “vital” to U.S. national security.

Panama has administered the canal since 1999, when the United States transferred control of the strategic passage to the Central American nation. The canal, built by the U.S. and completed in 1914, remains one of the world’s most important maritime transit routes, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Lin characterized China’s relationship with Latin America as “a form of South-South cooperation, based solely on mutual support without geopolitical calculations.”