Is the Panama Canal Controlled by China? | Joseph Humire

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This is the 30 minute TV version of Jan Jekielek’s interview with Joseph Humire. The longer-form version was released on Epoch TV on January 23, 2025.

🔴 Watch the extended version of this episode: https://ept.ms/Y0123JosephHumire

President Trump says he wants the United States to control the Panama Canal and other regions and waterways that he says are crucial to America’s national security interests.

In this interview, Joseph Humire, a national security expert, breaks down the context of Trump’s recent comments and explains how vulnerable the United States is to increasing Chinese, Russian, and Iranian influence in the region.

Joseph Humire: “And for those that have been paying attention, obviously I have, China has been quietly and silently encroaching on the Panama Canal. Do they control the canal? Can they shut down the canal? And those questions don’t always get a black and white response. The reality is, China, every day, has that much more influence over the operations of the canal and Panama itself. Panama does not like to talk about that, because they have a lot of trade and a lot of commerce with China.”

“Worst case scenario for the United States would be that [China] would find a way to disrupt the Panama Canal so that the United States no longer has rapid reaction capabilities to be able to move from the Atlantic into the Pacific,” he says.

CHAPTER TITLES
0:00:01 – The Importance of the Panama Canal to US National Security
0:00:18 – Trump’s Perspective on the Panama Canal and National Security
0:00:27 – The Worst-Case Scenario for the US
0:00:38 – Introducing Joseph Humire, Expert on Latin America
0:00:53 – The Lack of a Grand Strategy for the Western Hemisphere
0:01:23 – Protecting the Homeland and China’s Breach of the US Perimeter
0:05:00 – The History of the Panama Canal and the 1979 Treaty
0:08:36 – The 1979 Treaty and China’s Influence
0:10:00 – China’s Increasing Influence Over the Panama Canal
0:12:03 – China’s Military-Civil Fusion Strategy
0:14:18 – Encroachment on the Canal’s Neutrality
0:15:00 – Potential Instability and Threats to the Panama Canal
0:16:19 – The Strategic Importance of the Panama Canal to the US
0:18:23 – The Need to Renegotiate the Panama Canal Treaty
0:19:08 – Immediate Priorities and Recommendations
0:22:47 – Conclusion

Joseph Humire: “What is China’s true intention with the Panama Canal? Now, you can’t just ask China that openly in an interview, but that’s an intelligence question, that’s a strategy question, that’s a policy question, and it’s a question that we need to have with allies.”

“Right before the canal was fully transferred in 1999 two years prior, Hutchison Whampoa, a Port company from China, made a bid to get concessions to operate a couple of the ports on the canal. They won that concession, and so they timed it perfectly, because right before the transfer happened, they were able to start to operate ports. And all throughout the period of where Panama became fully in control of the canal, China has quietly incrementally began to have more and more influence.”

“China has a military civil fusion strategy. They have the ability to use dual use companies. And I think that that’s something that is lost sometimes among Latin Americans, policymakers and politicians.”

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