“China is working the Panama canal and we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it again.”
Donald Trump’s declare in his inauguration speech that Panama had “damaged its guarantees” to the US was alarming for a lot of Panamanians. Washington relinquished management of the canal in 1977, so why is Trump urgent the problem now?
“For a lot of Panamanians, this can be a settled understanding that they administrate the canal, that they’ve been operating it for many years,” the Guardian’s international affairs correspondent, Andrew Roth, tells Hannah Moore.
“For Donald Trump to return out and make mainly two claims – to start with, that the canal is mismanaged, and second of all, that China is operating the canal – it’s nearly like an insult to the nationwide pleasure of many Panamanians.”
Andrew explains the political resonance of the problem for older voters within the US, the place the claims about Chinese language affect have come from, and why an previous grudge involving considered one of Trump’s resorts may also be a part of his motivation.
Assist the Guardian at this time: theguardian.com/todayinfocuspod
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