Experts dispute President Donald Trump’s claims that the Panama Canal is controlled by China and overcharging U.S. ships.

In his 2nd term as president, Donald Trump has entertained proposals to acquire Greenland from Denmark, make Canada the 51st US state, and seize control of the Panama Canal - Anadolu Ajansı

A U.S. Senator from Missouri has led several colleagues to introduce a resolution that would help American companies continue to ship through the Panama Canal without influence from the Chinese government.

China may have investments in the operations of the Panama Canal but its soldiers are not operating it.

China got only one mention in US President Donald Trump's inaugural address on Monday, but the comment was threatening - especially to a country much closer to America. Suggesting that China's operations in the Panama Canal constituted a degree of ownership of the Central American waterway,

Trump's canal claims would undermine U.S.-Panama relations, boost China's influence, and revive regional tensions, harming both countries' interests, two experts argued

Panama has owned and administered the Panama Canal for nearly three decades. President Trump wants to change that to counter growing Chinese influence in Latin America.

Hutchinson Ports - a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings - operate ports on either extreme of the 82-kilometer waterway.

China has fired back at President Donald Trump, dismissing his claim that Beijing has seized control of the Panama Canal as baseless and provocative. Newsweek reached out by email to a Trump representative and to Hutchison Ports, a Hong Kong–based port operator that controls ports near the canal, for comment.

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