Panama’s highest court has voided the contract of a Chinese-linked company that operated key ports at the Panama Canal — handing the Trump administration a major victory in its push to curb China’s influence over the strategic waterway.
Panama’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the long-standing port concession held by a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison was unconstitutional, stripping the company of its legal right to operate the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal.
The affected terminals — Balboa on the Pacific side and Cristóbal on the Atlantic — sit at the physical entrances to the canal, making them among the most strategically sensitive commercial assets in global shipping.
In 1997, Panama granted a long-term concession to Panama Ports Company, a CK Hutchison subsidiary, to operate the two ports as the canal transitioned from US to Panamanian control ahead of the 1999 handover.
Friday’s ruling invalidated not only the original concession but also subsequent extensions, citing constitutional and procedural defects.
Panama Ports Company blasted the Supreme Court ruling as legally flawed, warning it threatens the country’s rule of law and investment climate.
In a statement issued Thursday, PPC said it had not yet been formally notified of the decision and argued the ruling is “inconsistent with the relevant legal framework and the law that approved the contract which has been the basis for PPC’s operations at the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal for nearly three decades.”
The company described the decision as “the latest development in a campaign by the Panamanian State impacting PPC and its investor over more than a year,” citing what it called a series of surprise actions targeting the concession.
The decision reopens the question of who controls the canal’s entry ports and under what terms.
The court decision also threw a proposed $23 billion sale of CK Hutchison’s global port business into jeopardy, dealing a blow to a deal that would have transferred control of the Panama terminals to a Western-led consortium that included BlackRock.
President Trump has repeatedly warned that the US would not tolerate what he described as creeping Chinese influence over the Panama Canal, framing control of canal-adjacent infrastructure as a core national-security issue.
Trump publicly criticized Panama for allowing CK Hutchison to operate ports in the waterway, arguing that the arrangement threatened US strategic interests in the Western Hemisphere.
“The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal but we have superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the Donroe Doctrine,” Trump said earlier this month after US special forces arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
“Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump said.
The president has cast the canal as a symbol of American power and sacrifice, pointing to the US role in its construction and arguing that Washington has a continuing stake in ensuring the waterway remains free from influence by rival powers.
The Post has sought comment from the White House and BlackRock.
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