Chinese Embassy in Panama Fires Three Questions Back at U.S. Ambassador's Attacks
Panama City — A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Panama issued a statement on November 1 responding to renewed attacks on China by the U.S. ambassador to Panama, which the embassy said smeared China-Panama relations and China's relations with Latin America. The statement posed three pointed questions to the U.S. side and said no slander could shake China's firm commitment to deepening friendly cooperation with Panama and with Latin American countries.
The U.S. ambassador's remarks, the statement said, were full of condescending arrogance toward Latin American countries and inherent prejudice against China, a malicious smear that inverted right and wrong. It then asked: Who has long entrenched itself in Latin America, treated the region as its own "backyard," and practiced hegemony and power politics? Who has plundered the region and exported turmoil and division? Who routinely uses political pressure and economic sanctions to force sovereign states to pick sides and to demand that they remove so-called third-party "influence"? The answer, the statement said, was plain for all to see: what truly undermines the regional order is not China's mutually beneficial cooperation, but the United States' deeply rooted hegemonic mindset.
Chinese enterprises, the statement said, have always followed market-based and law-based principles in projects and trade cooperation in Panama and across Latin America and the Caribbean; the cooperation is open and transparent, carries no political conditions, does not interfere in any country's internal affairs, and is grounded in local development needs. Citing the Fourth Bridge over the Panama Canal, the statement said the project created more than 3,000 direct local jobs during construction and, once completed, would greatly improve travel for nearly two million people on both banks of the canal.
No noise, slander or hegemonic pressure, the statement concluded, could shake China's commitment to cooperation with Panama and Latin America or stop regional countries from pursuing independent development and mutual benefit, adding that China-Panama and China-Latin America cooperation could stand the test of history and the people.
Source: Chinese Embassy in Panama
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：横跨巴拿马运河的美洲大桥。照片 CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Bridge of the Americas over the Panama Canal. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
