A new State Department strategy signals that the Trump administration is pursuing a broader campaign to curb Chinese and other foreign influence in the Western Hemisphere, with strategic infrastructure such as the Panama Canal at the center of US concerns. The plan emphasizes preventing adversaries from using commercial investments to gain control over critical chokepoints, ports, and supply chains, reports John Sitilides of The National Interest.
Recent actions involving Panama, Venezuela, and scrutiny of Chinese-operated ports across Latin America reflect a wider effort to safeguard US trade, security, and regional dominance while rolling back foreign control where it already exists. Sitilides writes:
On January 15, the State Department released its “Agency Strategy Plan,” much of which mirrors the November National Security Strategy, but more deeply reveals the Donald Trump administration’s intentions for re-ordering US foreign policy. The new State Department plan bluntly elaborates the primacy of “vital chokepoints like the Panama Canal,” warning that the US “will no longer permit foreign adversaries to use commerce and investment as a stalking horse for control of the region’s critical infrastructure and strategic territory.”
A Hong Kong-based company, CK Hutchison Holding, has been operating two Panama Canal ports since 1997. After Beijing enacted a national security law in 2020 that criminalized any Hong Kong actions deemed as collusion with foreign forces, Washington has been concerned about free passage, as 40 percent of all annual US trade with Asia sails through the vital chokepoint. In the event of a crisis, the Chinese Communist Party could order the Hong Kong company to deny US naval passage of destroyers, combat ships, and amphibious transport dock ships to support and reinforce Pacific Command fleet operations. […]
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