This is John Batchel, conversation with my colleague Joseph Umar, Executive Director, Secure Free Society,

about Panama and the Chinese influence operations and more. Joseph fills in a couple of details

that had been missing from my understanding. One is that there was an opportunity to reject China's influence and ownership

and domination of the two ports, one at the other end of the canal.

That opportunity was in 2022, and despite recommendations by the military,

the Biden administration did nothing.

The other observation is that the bridge, the new bridge that's being constructed,

is being put together by the same company that build those artificial islands in the South China Sea.

That's a PLA link that is impossible to deny.

Joseph Umar on Panama,

the People's Republic of China, the People's Liberation Army,

the threat to the United States and the hemisphere,

much more of this later and in coming weeks.

That's a great question, John, because the concession that the Panamanians gave to Hutchinson

Port Holdings, the Hong Kong-based company that's, you know, basically influenced by China,

that concession was initially given in the late 1990s.

It expired in 2022, and that would have been a great opportunity for the United States and the Biden administration to essentially block them from renewing another concession, but they did not.

So they were able to renew that concession for another 25 years, and that's where we find ourselves

today. So no, the answer, John, is they did not do anything about this issue about China

having access to the ports on the Panama Canal, despite the fact that the Department of Defense,

particularly Southern Command, raised this point quite a bit throughout congressional hearings, throughout their

visits. The former commander of Southern Command General Laura Richardson made this a top line

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