When I first travelled to Panama City in 2012, the big real estate story – in a town obsessed with real estate – was the Trump Ocean Club. My driver from Tocumen airport, Roberto, had chauffeured its namesake the previous year.

Panama has owned and administered the Panama Canal for nearly three decades. President Trump wants to change that to counter growing Chinese influence in Latin America.

The new Secretary of State already has said the Hong Kong-based operator of Panama Canal-adjacent ports could be a “big national security and defense problem.”

China may have investments in the operations of the Panama Canal but its soldiers are not operating it.

In recent weeks, when he was President-elect Donald Trump publicly said that Panama should return the Panama Canal to the United States, and he would not rule out using military force to reclaim it. At his presidential Inauguration on Monday Trump doubled down on saying that his new administration was going to take back the canal.

China's expanding footprint in Latin America is expected to be high on the agenda when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits Panama next week on his first overseas trip since taking office, according to observers.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s insistence that he wants to have the Panama Canal back under U.S. control is feeding nationalist sentiment and worry in Panama, home to the critical trade route and a country familiar with U.

President Trump’s push to take back control of the strategic waterway stokes memories of a period of U.S. imperial ambition and violence.

Republicans hoping to thwart Beijing’s influence in Latin America are urging the Panamanian government to cut ties with Chinese entities.

Panama’s government and President José Raúl Mulino have repeatedly denied that there is any Chinese presence at the canal.

The answer is simple: there is no greater or more idealistic symbol of U.S. power in the world than the Panama Canal. As Trump seeks a way to enhance the country's power in the world, leaning on imagery regarding the Panama Canal provides just the right message.

Russia warned President Trump on Tuesday against seizing the Panama Canal, after he reiterated his intent to take control of the strategic waterway in his second inaugural address Monday.