China Throws Its Weight Around In America’s Backyard Over Taiwan

China reportedly threatened Panama with “serious consequences” after a majority of the country’s lawmakers backed the creation of a parliamentary exchange group with Taiwan.

The newly-created Panamanian parliamentary exchange group with Taiwan has opened a diplomatic rift between Beijing and Panamanian lawmakers less than a decade after Panama abandoned diplomatic relations with Taiwan in favor of China, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Monday, citing Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has publicly distanced his government from the lawmakers’ initiative as Beijing pressures the country to reaffirm its commitment to the one-China principle, the outlet reported.

“We congratulate Panama for taking steps to assert its sovereignty and align with President Trump’s vision for the Panama Canal,” a senior U.S. official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The President has made clear that Chinese control of the Panama Canal is unacceptable, violates the U.S.-Panama Treaty, and jeopardizes our national and economic security.”

In the event of global war, such as World War III, the Panama Canal would be an irreplaceable asset for the U.S. Navy if it needed to rapidly deploy surface vessels for combat in the Pacific Ocean.

The dispute puts Beijing’s pressure campaign squarely in a region Washington considers strategically vital. The Trump administration’s 2026 defense strategy specifically warned that growing adversary influence around the Panama Canal could threaten U.S. access to key terrain in the Western Hemisphere and undermine American security interests, according to the Department of War.

China has spent years expanding its economic and infrastructure footprint in Panama, including investments involving ports, telecommunications and transportation projects around the canal, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Beijing’s warning over the Taiwan group represents another front in the broader competition between China and the U.S. for influence in a country controlling one of the Western Hemisphere’s most strategically important waterways.

“The United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of our security and prosperity—a condition that allows us to assert ourselves confidently where and when we need to in the region,” a senior U.S. official told the DCNF. “The terms of our alliances, and the terms upon which we provide any kind of aid, must be contingent on winding down adversarial outside influence—from control of military installations, ports, and key infrastructure to the purchase of strategic assets broadly defined.”

“There is but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” Guo said during a Monday press briefing, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “To cross the line on the Taiwan question will lead to serious consequences.”

The Panamanian embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.