Category: Ports

Panama President Seeks to Calm China Tensions

By Elida Moreno Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino on Thursday sought to calm tensions with China, striking a conciliatory tone a day after his foreign minister called out the Asian superpower for increased inspections of Panama-flagged vessels as a tit-for-tat response to China's ...

China Says U.S. Fabricated Claims of Panama-Flagged Ship Detentions

China accused the United States on Friday of fabricating claims that Beijing had detained Panama-flagged ships in a long-running dispute over control of the strategic Panama Canal. Relations between the United States and China soured when Panamanian authorities in February took ...

China’s Detentions of Panama-Flagged Vessels Raise Concerns, Rubio Says

Detentions of Panama-flagged vessels by China that followed a Panamanian court ruling raise serious concerns, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday. The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) said last week it was closely monitoring a surge in detentions of Panama-flagged ...

CK Hutchison Unit Says Panama Arbitration Claim Now Tops $2 Billion

A unit of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison said on Tuesday it had widened its claims in an international arbitration case against Panama, saying damages had now risen to more than $2 billion. Panama Ports Company, which for nearly three decades operated ...

Panama Rejects Hong Kong Firm’s Claim of Ignoring Arbitration

Panama's president denied Thursday that officials failed to respond to an arbitrage lawsuit by the Hong Kong firm opposing the takeover of its Panama Canal operations, saying the government would "strongly" defend itself. The dispute stems from a Panama court ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The Emerging China-Global South Energy Nexus

This month brought quietly momentous news: for the first time ever, the world’s share of renewable energy surpassed that generated by burning coal. 
China is one of the world’s biggest consumers of coal and is therefore partly responsible for bringing us to our current carbon crisis. 

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The Panama Model: How Weak Institutions Become Weapons in the U.S.-China Competition

In February 2026, Panama expelled Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison from its ports after 29 years, seizing millions of dollars in assets under a presidential decree issued less than a month after the Supreme Court ruled the concession unconstitutional. Nearly one year earlier, Panama’s government began negotiations to ...

Panama Asks Chinese Shipping Giant Cosco to Return to Canal

Panama's government on Friday asked Chinese shipping giant Cosco to reconsider its suspension of operations at a Panama Canal port, the latest fallout from an ongoing disagreement between the United States and China over the waterway's oversight. Earlier this week, state-owned ...

Panama Hopes China’s COSCO Will Resume Operations at Balboa Port, Minister Says

Panama's government hopes China's COSCO Shipping will reconsider its decision not to use the Balboa port at the entrance of the Panama Canal, the country's minister for canal affairs, Jose Ramon Icaza, said on Friday. Earlier this week, local newspaper La ...

China’s COSCO Shipping Suspends Operations at Panama’s Balboa Port, La Prensa Says

China's COSCO Shipping has suspended operations at Balboa port, which is located at the entrance to the Panama Canal, according to local newspaper La Prensa, which published a notice to clients from the shipping and logistics conglomerate. Balboa is one of the ...

Panama Officials Search CK Hutchison’s Local Office as Tensions Rise

Panamanian authorities searched the local ports unit of Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison, the subsidiary said on Friday, escalating a rift over control of two key ports near the globally strategic Panama Canal. The search, carried out on Thursday, comes amid ...

The Paradox of Panama’s “Rule of Law”: Hutchison Ports vs. Minera Panama

In the wake of the forced transition at the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal, Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha sent a clear message to the international community: Panama is a country of legal certainty, and the government is "simply respecting a Supreme Court ruling" regarding the ouster ...

Panama Wrests Control of Canal Ports From Hong Kong Group

Panamanian authorities took control of two ports on the Panama Canal from CK Hutchison on Monday after the Hong Kong-based conglomerate’s concession was annulled amid a row between the United States and China. The court ruling was the latest legal development affecting ...
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