Panama Opens Audit of Chinese Port Operator While Trump Threatens to Take Canal Back

• Panamanian authorities began an audit of the China-linked company that controls two ports adjacent to the Panama Canal, as President Donald Trump repeats threats to take over the waterway.
• The comptroller’s office sent a team of auditors on Monday (Jan 20) to the local offices of the Panama Ports Company, a subsidiary of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings, to launch their investigation, the comptroller’s office said on X.
• Comptroller General Anel Bolo Flores said last week the probe would seek to verify compliance with the terms of a 25-year concession granted to the company and promised a “severe and strong” financial audit. Panama initially granted the concession in 1998, and the Panama Maritime Authority authorised its renewal in 2021.
• The scrutiny comes as Trump accuses Panama of allowing China to meddle in the canal. In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump reiterated his claim that China is operating the waterway and said that his administration would take it back.
• Panama’s government has repeatedly denied that there is any Chinese presence in the canal, and Trump has not yet produced any evidence to contradict this. Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino on Monday reiterated in a post on X that the canal will remain under Panamanian control.

(Sources: Bloomberg & Business Times)