Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino firmly refuted US President-elect Donald Trump’s assertion that Chinese soldiers are controlling the Panama Canal, calling the claim “nonsense.” “There are no Chinese soldiers in the canal. You are free, the whole world is free to visit the canal if you please,” Mulino said at a news conference Thursday. “What [Trump] has said on this issue is nonsense; it does not exist,” he added. The controversy began Christmas Day when Trump posted on Truth Social, sarcastically wishing a merry Christmas to “the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal.”
