Experts dispute President Donald Trump’s claims that the Panama Canal is controlled by China and overcharging U.S. ships.

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

Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would "take back" the Panama Canal. During his inauguration, he expressed concerns over Panama’s breach of trust and China's influence on this crucial maritime route.

Hutchinson Ports - a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings - operate ports on either extreme of the 82-kilometer waterway.

In his speech, Trump said the U.S. will attempt to reassert control over the Panama Canal, claiming that China is giving preferential treatment over the crucial waterway bridging the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

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.

Trump's claim that Chinese soldiers exercise authority over the Panama Canal is inaccurate, but his assertion that China manipulates the use of the passage is a long-held U.S. concern.

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 Donald Trump has called for the US to retake control of the Panama Canal unless the cost of passage for naval and merchant ships is slashed. Trump’s refusal to rule out the use of force is a throwback to the 19th century era of gunboat diplomacy.

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.