川普利用中國的影響力來證明其對巴拿馬運河的擴張野心是假議題。但中國已經在這條著名水道上留下了自己的印記，只是方式不像川普所聲稱的那樣 Donald Trump has invoked the spectre of Chinese influence to justify his expansionist ambitions for the Panama Canal. But China has already left its mark on the famous waterway – just not in the way Trump has claimed.

The Chinese presence in Panama can be traced back even further, to the 1850s, when workers from China arrived to build the Panama Railway and later the canal. For over six decades, they shed sweat and blood – and thousands paid with their lives – 5,000 Chinese workers were hired for each of the French and American-led canal projects, according to Zhuang and Wang at Guangzhou University. 中國在巴拿馬的存在可以追溯到更早的19世紀50年代，當時中國工人來到這裡修建巴拿馬鐵路，後來又修建了運河。廣州大學的莊和王介紹說，60多年來，中國工人付出了心血和汗水，數千人付出了生命的代價，法國和美國牽頭的運河工程都僱用了5000名中國工人.