China says US ambassador to Panama ‘spreading lies’ after ‘malign’ presence jibe

Diplomatic tensions between China and the United States over Panama have flared up once again, with the Chinese embassy in the Central American country accusing Washington’s top envoy there of “spreading lies” to undermine Beijing’s regional ties. This comes after the US ambassador to Panama, Kevin Cabrera, said that Washington viewed China’s presence in the Panama Canal as “malign”. Beijing was fooling Latin America with its investments, he claimed in an interview with digital media outlet Contrapeso Panamá published on Sunday. “They come in, give away money and engage in corruption, which the US does not do. American companies cannot participate in those things,” Cabrera was quoted as saying. “Just look at Chile, Peru and Ecuador: the dams they built, the mines they built. It’s been a disaster. “And let’s not even talk about the canal they were going to build in Nicaragua. They spent I don’t know how much destroying the environment, and nothing happened.” Hours after the interview was published, the Chinese embassy in Panama issued a statement accusing Cabrera of having “once again spread lies on issues related to China”. “The US ambassador’s remarks about China lack factual basis and scientific reasoning, and attempt to sow discord between China and regional countries, deprive them of diplomatic autonomy and serve US geopolitical self-interests,” the embassy said in the statement issued on its social media channels on Sunday. The embassy defended Chinese businesses operating in Latin America, saying Beijing “consistently” required them to comply with local laws and regulations. “Projects undertaken by Chinese companies in Panama and other Latin American countries have made significant contributions to local economic and social development,” it said. The statement also described the US ambassador’s remarks as “questioning the judgment of regional countries and mocking the intelligence of local populations”. The sharp exchange of accusations marks the latest instance of diplomatic tensions involving Panama, as the strategically located country becomes a focal point of US-China geopolitical competition in the region. Since his re-election as US president last November, Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to “take back” the Panama Canal, a key artery of global trade connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that he claims operates under Chinese influence. The man-made waterway through which some US$270 billion in cargo flows annually has been under the Panamanian government’s control since 1999, when the US formally relinquished joint control. Meanwhile, a controversial deal by CK Hutchison Holdings, a Hong Kong conglomerate, to sell its Panama Canal ports to a consortium led by BlackRock, an American multinational investment company, has drawn criticism and scrutiny from Beijing. In the Contrapeso Panamá interview, Cabrera said an audit of CK Hutchison found that it owed Panama more than US$600 million, adding: “I would say that’s pretty malignant.” Cabrera said it was “quite worrying” that Jorge González, a canal official, reportedly worked as a consultant for the Chinese consortium building the fourth bridge over the waterway. “I would call it a bribe. He received a bribe from a Chinese Communist Party company,” he alleged, saying the action ran afoul of a neutrality pact signed with Washington in 1977. “At the end of the day, 70 per cent of what passes through the canal goes to and from the US,” Cabrera said. “So, [China’s] influence is very worrying to us.” In addition, he warned that Panamanians who dealt “with Chinese companies that sell corrupt and untrustworthy technology” were at risk of having their American visas revoked. “A visa is a privilege, not a right,” he said, repeating a statement he made in May, during his first public appearance as ambassador to Panama. Last month, the US State Department announced restrictions on visas for some Central American nationals for “intentionally acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party”. The Chinese embassy in turn accused the US of using visas “as a weapon to threaten Panamanian government officials and lawmakers” in their interactions with China. “China’s friends are all over the world and true friends cannot be intimidated,” the embassy said in its statement on Sunday. “While Mickey Mouse closes his doors to them, the panda opens its arms.” The embassy statement also attached an image of a frowning Mickey Mouse alongside a panda wearing traditional Chinese attire and holding its arms open as it stood in front of a map of the Americas. That exchange followed another public tiff in August, when nine Panamanian lawmakers joined a global parliamentary alliance that Beijing denounced as an anti-China front. The move was announced in Panama’s National Assembly at a ceremony supported by the US ambassador. In an apparent response to the alliance, a Sino-Panamanian inter-parliamentary “friendship group” was set up last month. At the group’s inauguration ceremony last week, Xu Xueyuan, China’s ambassador to Panama, said it was hoped the entity would serve as “a defender of the one-China principle, a pioneer of China-Panama cooperation and a promoter of bilateral friendship”. In his interview, Cabrera also accused Beijing of carrying out cyberattacks in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Paraguay and other countries in the region, calling the actions another example of China’s “malignant presence”. He also dismissed the 5G technology of Huawei Technologies, a Chinese smartphone and telecoms giant, as “unreliable”. The Chinese embassy responded by describing the US as “the world’s most proven hacking and surveillance empire”. “Yet it attempts to pin the label of ‘cyber espionage’ on China – a classic case of the thief crying ‘thief’,” the embassy said in its statement, urging the US to “abandon its arrogance and prejudice”.

China says US ambassador to Panama ‘spreading lies’ after ‘malign’ presence jibe

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Exchange of sharp accusations is latest instance of US-China tensions flaring over strategically important Central American country

Exchange of sharp accusations is latest instance of US-China tensions flaring over strategically important Central American country