Rubio Threatens Panama

It can’t be emphasized enough how unnecessary and ridiculous all of this is.

Rubio concluded his first foreign visit as Secretary of State with a not-so-veiled threat against Panama:

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday warned Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino that Washington will "take measures necessary" if Panama does not immediately take steps to end what President Donald Trump sees as China's influence and control over the Panama Canal.

The Panama obsession is a good example of why making rivalry with China the core of U.S. foreign policy is so harmful. The rivalry creates incentives to exaggerate Chinese power and influence to make China seem more menacing than it really is. “Chinese control” of the canal has been invented out of thin air to serve the larger story that China hawks want to tell about Beijing’s ambitions. Trump and the China hawks are fighting shadows of their own creation, and in the process they are doing real harm to U.S. interests in this hemisphere.