China has detained nearly 70 Panamanian-flagged ships after a Supreme Court ruling on the Panama Canal, US officials say.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 29 Apr 2026<\/span>29 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States have released a joint statement in support of Panama, while criticising Chinese economic retaliation, after a Hong Kong-based conglomerate lost a legal dispute over the management of ports on the Panama Canal.<\/p>\n Panama\u2019s Supreme Court in late January annulled contracts that had allowed a subsidiary of Hong Kong\u2019s CK Hutchison to administer the Balboa and Cristobal port terminals on the Panama Canal after deeming the decades-old agreements unconstitutional.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n In their joint statement on Tuesday, the six countries claimed that following the court ruling, China has retaliated against Panama with \u201ctargeted economic pressure\u201d on Panamanian-flagged ships.<\/p>\n China detained nearly 70 Panamanian-flagged ships in March, according to the US Federal Maritime Commission, a number \u201cfar exceeding historical norms\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThese actions \u2013 following the decision of Panama\u2019s independent Supreme Court regarding the Balboa and Cristobal terminals \u2013 are a blatant attempt to politicise maritime trade and infringe on the sovereignty of the nations of our hemisphere,\u201d the signatories said.<\/p>\n US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said separately on X that Washington was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by China\u2019s economic pressure on Panama.<\/p>\n \u201cWe stand in solidarity with Panama. Any attempts to undermine Panama\u2019s sovereignty are a threat to us all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n China has previously accused the US of \u201cbullying\u201d and trying to smear its reputation in Latin America, while it described the Panamanian Supreme Court ruling as \u201cabsurd\u201d and \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n US Federal Maritime Commission head Laura DiBella said last month that Beijing\u2019s detention of Panamanian ships had repercussions for both Panama and the US.<\/p>\n \u201cThese intensified inspections were carried out under informal directives and appear intended to punish Panama after the transfer of Hutchison\u2019s port assets,\u201d DiBella said.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that Panama\u2011flagged ships carry a meaningful share of US containerised trade, these actions could result in significant commercial and strategic consequences to US shipping,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Panama\u2019s decision to invalidate the contracts held by CK Hutchison\u2019s subsidiary Panama Ports Company was made at a time of heightened media attention around the Panama Canal amid threats by US President Donald Trump to seize the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n Trump had made the approximately 80km (49-mile) waterway a focus of his second administration, alleging in his inaugural address in January 2025 that China was \u201coperating\u201d the canal and pledging that the US would \u201ctake back\u201d control.<\/p>\n US officials allege that, in addition to targeting Panama and its interests, China has also retaliated against shipping giants Maersk and the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), whose subsidiaries were granted 18-month contracts to administer the Balboa and Cristobal terminals after CK Hutchison was removed.<\/p>\n Representatives of Maersk and MSC were both summoned by China\u2019s Ministry of Transport for \u201chigh-level discussions\u201d, the Federal Maritime Commission said in March, while Chinese shipping giant COSCO has suspended operations at the Balboa terminal.<\/p>\n CK Hutchison, through its Panama Ports Company subsidiary, is separately pursuing international arbitration against the government of Panama and seeking more than $2bn in damages.<\/p>\n David Smith, an associate professor at the University of Sydney\u2019s US Studies Centre, said that the Panama Canal dispute and China\u2019s retaliation were the latest example of how shipping has become a political target, from Latin America to the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea in the Middle East.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have taken for granted that the world runs on container ships just freely sailing around the world,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing now is that states know how vulnerable shipping is. They know they can cut shipping lanes off if necessary. It should not surprise us from now on if ships and shipping in general become pawns in international politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n China has detained nearly 70 Panamanian-flagged ships after a Supreme Court ruling on the Panama Canal, US officials say. Published On 29 Apr 202629 Apr 2026 Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States have released a joint statement in support of Panama, while criticising Chinese economic retaliation, after a Hong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Al-Jazeera-Erin-1-1754975994.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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