Marco Rubio, US secretary of state nominee, echoes Trump’s Panama Canal China concern

Name: Trump wants the Panama Canal: empty talk or real threat for Hong Kong?
Uploaded: 2025-01-16T00:23:37.000Z
Duration: 4 min 23 s
Description: Trump wants the Panama Canal: empty talk or real threat for Hong Kong?

In nomination hearing, Rubio also slams Beijing’s ‘violation’ of Hong Kong’s autonomy and asserts ‘national defence’ component of Taiwan Relations Act

Reading Time:4 minutes

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US Senator Marco Rubio testifies before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination to be secretary of state, in Washington on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Igor Patrickin Washington

Published: 8:23am, 16 Jan 2025Updated: 10:41am, 16 Jan 2025

Florida’s Senator Marco Rubio, nominated by president-elect Donald Trump as Secretary of State, sharply criticised China’s global ambitions during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, singling out Beijing’s involvement in the Panama Canal as a significant threat to US national security.

Wading into an issue that made headlines when Trump claimed last month that the canal was “foolishly” given to Panama, Rubio described the waterway as a strategic vulnerability due to Chinese influence, as state-linked Chinese companies currently operate ports at both ends.

The canal handles as much as 5 per cent of global trade and is vital to America’s regional military operations and economic interests.

“I’m compelled to respect that an argument could be made that the terms under which that canal were turned over have been violated, because, while technically, sovereignty over the canal has not been turned over to a foreign power, in reality, a foreign power possesses it through their company companies,” Rubio said

“If [China] orders a company to shut it down or impede our transit, they will have to do so,” he added.

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Trump wants the Panama Canal: empty talk or real threat for Hong Kong?

Completed by the US in 1914, the Panama Canal remained under its control until being transferred to the Panamanian government in 1999 as part of a bilateral agreement signed 22 years earlier.