So we have prioritized the security of the canal and will then gradually develop the other areas of security. Questions about security have been raised by critics of Panama's decision to award two port concessions to Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong company that also runs the largest container port in England. The move was met with alarm by conservatives who claim the company will be a puppet of the Chinese army and could block U.S. ships from entering the canal. But Panamanian officials and their U.S. supporters dismiss the claims, noting that the ports have no control over entry into the canal and that the transfer treaty allows for U.S. intervention if the canal's neutrality is threatened. At the simplest level, there are people who have not been informed that the Cold War is over and we won it.
China is a very large country and extraordinarily poor.
It is simply not in our league. Running the canal may prove easier than the gargantuan task of converting drab and utilitarian military bases into attractive money-making ventures. Already hundreds of homes have been sold at prices that are often lower than residences elsewhere in the city. Still, the transformation is evident, and sometimes jarring, in an area that for several generations was the exclusive domain of the Americans who ran the canal and the bases. All the history of Panama with the United States is here.