As Rubio prepares to visit Panama Canal, US envoy says China’s presence a security concern

WASHINGTON - China's presence around the Panama Canal is a national security concern that Panama's government has to deal with, U.S. Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone said on Friday, ahead of U.S. top diplomat Marco Rubio's visit to the country.

Rubio departs on Saturday on his first foreign trip, and will visit the canal and meet Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, the first talks between the countries since President Donald Trump's threat to take control of the canal.

Rubio will also visit El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, where the Trump administration's efforts to repatriate migrants from the region and stem migration will be on the agenda, Claver-Carone said in a briefing call with reporters.

Claver-Carone said it was not Mulino's fault but that under previous Panamanian governments, China's presence around the Canal "got completely out of hand" and Mulino "has to deal with it."

"This increasingly creeping presence of Chinese companies and actors throughout the Canal Zone, in everything from ports and logistics to telecommunications infrastructure and otherwise, which is very concerning, not only frankly to the national security of the United States, but frankly to the national security of Panama and to the entire Western Hemisphere," he said. "So that will be an issue of discussion."

Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings has for more than two decades operated the ports at the canal's entrances. The company is publicly listed and not financially tied to the Chinese government, though Hong Kong firms are subject to government oversight. REUTERS