Taiwan Embassy in Panama Sees Growing Pro-Beijing Presence

On his recent fact-finding mission to Panama, American Defense Center Executive Director Thomas Cromwell (center) met with Tomas Ping-fu Hou, Taiwan’s ambassador to Panama (right) and David Hsu, the Taiwan embassy's economic counselor (left). The embassy staff expressed their awareness of mainland China's growing role in Panama and Latin America, where Beijing has established commercial offices to court these governments with paid visits and aid. They pointed to Colombia’s new deal with Beijing to finance a pipeline through its territory to carry Venezuelan and Colombian oil from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The ambassador also noted that the majority of Panama's 150,000 Chinese citizens are aligned with the mainland and that most of the country's 30 Chinese associations are pro-Beijing.